Chief Medical Director (CMD), Bauchi State Specialist Hospital, Prof. Abdulkareem Garba, on Monday, said that drugs and medical consumables worth N50 million had been procured by the hospital in the last seven months.
Garba, who disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Bauchi, said that the procurement was due to increase in demand for healthcare services at the facility.
He said that the procurement was made from the state Drugs and Medical Consumables Management Agency (DMMA) to make treatment affordable to the people of the state.
The chief medical director said that before now, procurement used to be centred around the hospital’s department of pharmacy.
“Until my appointment seven months ago, the various departments were also into issues of drugs and consumables, which, of course, should not be.
“We procure from DMMA at affordable prices for our patients under the hospital drugs revolving funds,” he said.
Garba further stated that the drugs were reviewed weekly to guide against out of stock issues.
Speaking on financial management, the CMD said that an automated electronic system was adopted to ensure that all monies hit the hospital accounts, going forward.
“The consultant service company receives all payments with regards to all services, while each department writes a request for approval based on demand.
“So, there is no more cash handling but three different receipts are being generated.
“One receipt is for the customer; one for the accounts department and the other for departments where services will be obtained,” he said.
Garba said that a committee had been set up to harmonise internally-generated revenue from each department.
“We set up a committee to harmonise monies from the various departments bi-monthly,” he said.
According to him, the process had brought financial sanity and improvement to the hospital’s IGR within the period.
He noted that the hospital had also begun community mobilisation on access to healthcare.
“We are presently engaging the community on enrolling in the state’s Health Contributory Scheme to ease out-of-pocket expenditure.
“We have mobilised at least 70 people to enroll and will continue to do that for the public to have access to quality medicare,” he said. (NAN).
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