….Proffers solution  .

Calls on. Bayelsa Govt intervention.

Isaac Money  – Yenagoa 

The Chief Medical Director ( CMD) Federal.Medical Center (FMC) yenagoa, Dr. James Omietimi,  has cried out over  the massive movement of Doctors of the medical center’s extraction to overseas for greener pastures .

Dr. Omietimi says the ” Japa Syndrome ” is adversely affecting  sevice s at the hospital as efforts  to replace them yet to yield better results .

He also proffered solutions to check doctors ‘ sojourn for greener pastures abroad .

The chief Medical Director disclosed this when he had audience with members of the Federated  Correspondents Chapel , of the NUJ , Bayelsa state Council  at the weekend noted that virtually all arms of services at the hospital have been  affected adversely by the exoduse  of doctors to overseas and it has been a major challenge .

He also decried  the hips of unclaimed corpses that has litered the hospital’s morgue  as lots of them have been abandoned by supposed owners, some corpses have been there for over five years .

“The major challenge is the Japa Syndrom. a lot of people that render clinical services are leaving the country. Doctors, nurses, lab scientists and physiotherapist are leaving in their drove everyday.

“This is a major challenge and we need to replace them. and to replace them we need the approval of the federal government, which we have not gotten. so, we are suffering from manpower shortage.

“A lot of unclaimed corpses in our morgue. They are so many that we are over burdened. most times when people come, they just dump their deceased and run away.

“We have some corpses that have been abandoned here for over 5 years. Sometime ago the federal government said they wanted to come over to renovate and expand the place but they are yet to come”, said Omietimi who also spoke.on the availability of IVF services in the medical center , and it’s cheaper than other areas that offer similar services .

“We have sent some doctors to study IVF procedure.

” So currently we are rendering IVF services and it is slightly cheaper than other hospitals in the state.”

“We have a IVF clinic in the hospital and we have had nine live births. That clinic is doing well as I speak with you and our rates are cheaper. We encourage people to come here because we are having good results” he disclosed .

Dr. Omietimi.also disclosed that lack of funding has hindred core mandate areas of traning and research

His words :” Another mandate we have is to train people in all areas. The third area we are doing is research.

But we have not done better in this area because of lack of funding”.

He however noted that despite the plathora  of challenges , the medical.center is ready to pursue its  core mandates, to provide clinical services “to people who come here, not just adequately but timely.”

The CMD  says the FMC yenagoa needs expansion but lack of space caused by the Creek  and federal road behind and in front of the hospital respectively .

His words :”There is no much space to build new structures in the FMC. If you want to do new projects you can only build it upward. So space is a constraint to us because the hospital is limited by a creek at the back and federal road at the front.

On the issue of.manpower,  he says the hospital has serious challenge in this regard

According to him, “we use to have three consultants in the morgue but two of them have relocated to Saudi Arabia. So we have just one consultant in the morgue. We have a very active cardiology unit in the hospital.

“The cardiology unit usually opens on Mondays and Thursdays, and it happens to be the busiest unit in the hospital. As you all know hypertension is the most common cardiovascular ailment in the world.

“Many persons are walking around with hypertension without knowing it, and that is why it is called a silent killer.

” Each day the unit is open, we attend to 80 patients and it is a burden for the staff there because they close very late.

“Most of the patients we attend to are not people who walk into the hospital because they know that they have hypertension. 70 per cent of the people we attend to are people who were admitted for other ailments but only to discover that they have hypertension.

He says the hospital management  also looking at ways to have discussions with the government of Bayelsa State to see areas they can provide support for the FMC.

Dr.  Omietimi pointed  out  that even though people say the federal government allocate money to run the FMC, it is not Abuja residents that access clinical services in Yenagoa,  it is the residents of Bayelsa that  enjoy the services of the FMC.

The Chief Medical Director  also gave reasons for mass movement of Doctors to other countries , saying

“What make doctors leave the country is that people always go to where they can find greener pastures. “Insecurity is another reason why people leave the country in droves” he added .

Proffering solution to the mass exodus of.doctors , Omietimi stressed that  “doctors deserve better pay, standard infrastructure, modern working equipment and increase in the retirement age for health workers.

“I say so because some persons can still render clinical services even at the age of 70 years. In some countries doctors continue to provide clinical services even to the age of 80 years”.