By SOLA OGUNDIPE

Chief Medical Director, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex, OAUTHC, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Professor Olusanya Adejuyigbe  has called on the Federal government to increase budgetary funding to tertiary health institutions in the country.

Making the call in Ile-Ife, Adejuyigbe who lamented that the health sector was under funded, urged government at the top to provide sufficient funds to enable OAUTCH to complete its projects.

“This year (2012), the budget we have is N405 million. Last year, government did not release up to N410 million. Ideally if the left-over balance had been given, we would have completed some of the on-going projects either buying equipment or building structures.

*The children hospital complex, one of the projects awaiting completion at OAUTHC.

Each year, we now have projects which we have started with approval without such projects being completed because what they gave is not enough to complete these projects.

On priority areas of the institution, he remarked: “We now have more experts in certain areas and we believe that if these services are adequately rendered, the health of Nigerians will be better thereof.

”We should be here providing high quality tertiary health care in all specialisations of medicine. We are able to do some but we are handicapped in some others where we have trained personnel. For example we have our transplanting; they can do more with a little help particularly in funding of the processes. We would have been able to virtually do one procedure everyday if virtually everything is on ground personally.

“But there is no donor and people did not have money to carry out the surgery you will see a patient in your care wasting away despite the fact that you can help and it a big frustration. Another one is in the area of open heart surgery, we have establishedbut we are yet to have the advantage because of the cost per patientwhich is quite exorbitant.”

According to the CMD, there is need for expansion of  infrastructure base to take careof increased patronage and personnel on ground.

“We have set up and provide a minimal heart surgery and recently we our gynecologist did a minimal laparoscopy.  We are also setting up a cardiac care unit which is about 40 percent complete hopefully to

finish it  this year but I am afraid if balance of what we need is notreleased we may not able to finish it until next year.”

Further, he urged public officials to patronise public health institutions, arguing that it is only through such patronage that public hospitals in Nigeria could enjoy the dual advantage of being appreciated and its leaders would see need to invest more in local infrastructure and human resources.

Noting that 95 per cent of people traveling abroad are not going strictly for medical reasons. ”Many people go out not because of medical reasons alone and sometimes they will not want to voice out why they go out for the treatment.

He stated that a lot of women decide to have their babies abroad not because babies cannot be delivered in Nigeria, but because they might want to increase the likelihood of wanting their babies to acquire foreign passports in future.”That is not medical reason.

Lot of people migrate for medical treatment not because of incompetence or lack of equipment but for varieties of reasons. I cannot say we have all the infrastructure and personnel on ground to take care of all medical conditions.

“The truth is that our expertise and equipment are currently underutilised and if public office holders patronise us it would have been an advantage in that it will give local people a sense of appreciation.”