Hon. Pascal rolls out plans for committee and constituency
Honourable Pascal Obi, member representing Ideato North and Ideato South Federal Constituency and Chairman House Committee on Health Institutions has has said it will no longer be business as usual for health practitioners.
In an interview with newsmen, he spoke on challenges facing the health sector and his readiness to tackle them head on.
Honourable, can we know your agenda for the Committee on Health Institutions?
After the inauguration of the Ninth Assembly, the honourable Speaker deemed it fit to appoint me as the Chairman of this important committee. The scope is very large and the health institutions in the six Geo Political zones are numerous. It has about twenty five members and the beauty of the whole situation is the fact that unlike the composition of this same committee in the Eight Assembly, there was no doctor in the committee. Now we have seven doctors, pharmacist and laboratory scientist, some members of other professional bodies in the health care system. In conduct, we are going to have a sharp departure from what we use to have. This is not the time that medical doctor will come and confuse members with medical terminologies for their own interests instead of doing the right thing. In my inaugural speech I told them that I started my health career as a medical practitioner in a general hospital, where I grew to become director of public health and primary health care services in the ministry of health. I rise to become a Permanente Secretary in the civil service of Imo State. I was a Principal Secretary to the governor of Imo State, where I exited to contest for this position. I told my members that I am going to run an open door policy, I need their advise, cooperation, contribution and support at every point in time. And everything should be geared towards improving the conditions of the health institutions. So that when we are exiting in 2023, we will leave the institutions better than we met them. I do know most of their challenges, ranging from poor welfare packages to the nonchalant attitudes of these instructions and many other things. Most times, the health workers are not serious with their jobs; alot of deaths have been recorded due to carelessness on the part of the workers. These are the things we feel are necessary to confront head on and at the end of the day, we will make the health institutions better than they are now.
Hon. Pascal Obi, member representing Ideato North & South, Federal Constituency, Imo State.
Looking at the rots in the infrastructure of the health institutions. Do you think that the budget is adequate to handle your intentions for these institutions?
We have an assignment that we are supposed to carry out within four years. The president has only presented a budget for one year, 2020. Before we get the budget for the the remaining three years, we would have at least visited many of these institutions, done facility tours to ascertain the level of rot. Then we will be able to make contributions before the next budget is prepared. The budget estimate that was brought is without our input because we are only inaugurated as a committee last week. I think we will come up with a better package in the next budget. This year, we must ensure judicious application of whatever has been budgeted so that at the end of the day, the journey from Egypt to Israel has commenced.
How does your committee intend to collaborate with the regulatory agencies in order to handle some of the unethical practices in the health sector?
We have already written to them, commenced our contact and communication with them. We have already had the first meeting with them and drawn their attention to the very palpable areas of poor conduct. By the time the 2020 budget is passed, we will know what they have received from 2019, then commence our over sight functions. We have grouped ourselves; my group will be facing south east, south west and the other group will be facing north east, north central and south south. We will visit these hodpitals and continue to interface with the operators to know what their problems are. We will look into the complaints that are raised. You don’t do oversight functions by phone calls. There is every need to get to those places, see the problems and confront them.
How does your committee intend to solve the problem of brain drain facing the health sector in the country?
That is the reason I earlier identified poor renumeration as one of the challenges facing the health sector. The poor welfare packages of health workers is the major cause of brain drain in the country. When you the monthly take home of doctors or consultant with what their counterparts take home even in some African countries, you won’t blame them for going to out. When they go out there, you discover that they have a better working condition than what they get in Nigeria. The best way to solve the issue of brain drain is to take good care of the operators and professionals in the health institutions. There are so many qualified doctors that are not employed and most health instructions are under staffed. It is not because the services of these doctors are not needed, but the instructions cannot pay them for lack of funds.
Don’t you think that a law is needed to limit the movement of doctors and health professionals out of the country?
There is bill on floor of the house called bonding that could not be passed in the last assembly. It states that a doctor cannot leave the country until after five years of residential services. I am sure that that bill cannot be passed because there are qualified doctors that don’t have job. If you bond the ones that you are giving jobs, what happens to those that are not getting jobs? The bill will only be effective if the qualified doctors are sure of getting jobs immediately.
How do you intend to solve the problem of incessant strike in the health sector?
Since our inauguration as a committee, we have solved two similar cases. Through the instrumentalities of theb Speaker of house, we were able to stop the nurses of the Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital from embarking on strike. As lawmakers, ours is to make laws. Implementation is in the hands of the executive. We cannot do beyond what we can do.
What do you have in stock for the people in your Constituency, whose mandate you are enjoying?
The people of my Constituency are already feeling the impact of bringing a material like me to represent them in the green chamber. I have gone far in preparing so many bills and motions for presentation on the floor of the House of Representatives. These bills are not only focused on the health sector but on so many other areas like ecology, right of women and so on. In the health sector, I intend to transform many health centers in Ideato north and south. They must witness an unprecedented transformation this time. I also intend to extend the Federal Medical Centre to my federal constituency. We are trying to get that accommodated in the 2021 budget. Ideato north and south is a federal constituency that is very far from Owerri where we have Federal Medical Center. So, it will be in the best interest of my people if there should be an annex of the FMC in Ideato north and south. Doctors, consultants, general practitioners and nurses will be there to attend to the people. By the time we reconvene on 29th of October, I will have the privilege presenting bills and motions that will attract the support of my colleagues because these are motions that geared towards the welfare of Nigerians.
