The Medical Director, Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, Dr Abali Chuku, has appealed to the Federal Government to release N500 million take-off grant to the hospital.

Chuku made the appeal on Thursday while briefing a team of officials from the Fiscal and Responsibility Commission (FRC), which was at the hospital to inspect ongoing federal government projects.

The medical director expressed concern that the hospital had not received take-off grant since its inception in 1999 when it was taken over from the missionaries by the Federal Government.

He said that the Centre had been grappling with inadequate funding, adding that the take-off grant would help it to perform optimally.

Chuku added that the hospital was grossly understaffed, saying that the present staff size of 1,531 was battling to meet the work load.

The medical director said that the Centre had only 236 nurses and needed more to be able to effectively discharge its duties.

He explained that he had applied to the Office of the Head of Service to employ 800 workers but received approval for 415, including medical personnel, engineering, administration and accounting officers, among others.

Chuku said it had become difficult for the hospital to sponsor the training of medical and other ancilliary staff because of paucity of funds.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the FRC team, led by a Deputy Director, Mr Samson Eletuo, inspected the two-storey Slessor/Ludlow wards and two-storey consulting complex, with 33 clinics already completed.

The team also inspected the ongoing construction of Crowder/Ibiam Ward, valued at over N173 million.

Chuku said that only N15 million had so far been released for the project and that the job could not progress due to the lack of funds.

Also inspected was the construction of the 250-bed wards, valued at about N214 million.

The medical director added that the project was initiated in 1970 but stopped at the foundation level also due to the lack of funds.

He said work on the project resumed after it was captured in the 2014 and 2016 budgets respectively and that 65 per cent work had
been completed, adding that its completion would add up to the hospital’s current 405-bed capacity.

He then appealed for more funding of the hospital, saying it was not getting any financial assistance from the Abia Government.

The team also inspected the rehabilitation of 5km portion of Aba Road, Umuahia, being supervised by the Federal Ministry of Works.

In an interview at the end of the inspection, the leader of the team expressed satisfaction with the level of work so far executed at the FMC.

He, however, expressed reservation with the execution of the rehabilitation of the Aba Road.

He said the state government’s intervention on some portions of the project created some grey areas that required clarification from the contractor, Simidia S&I International Company Limited.

He said that the team covered four states in the South East, namely Anambra, Imo, Enugu and Abia.

A representative of the contractor, Mr Joshua Onwuchekwa, said that the contract was awarded as a constituency project in 2011 at about
N560 million.

He said the company received an initial mobilisation fee of over N30 million and that work was suspended after the amount was exhausted.

He added that with last week’s release of additional N60 million, work would soon resume on the remaining part of the project.