N4.4bn Hospital equipment laying waste in Gombe medical store

WHILE many General and cottage hospitals, primary healthcare centers, maternities and other health centers in Gombe state are becoming mere consulting centers due to lack of equipment and other healthcare delivery facilities, assorted hospital equipment and consumables said to be worth about N4.4 billion have been laying waste at the Gombe State Medical Store for the past four years due what is said to be bureaucratic bottlenecks.

Recent investigations by our correspondent who went round the State Medical store in Gombe revealed that items like hospital beds, oxygen cylinders, drip stands among many others were among the equipment left to rot away in the sun while some are wasting away in buildings within the premises of the Medical store.

While confirming the existence of this equipment to our correspondent, some staff of the medical store who did not disclose their identities for security reasons confided to our correspondent that some of the equipment has been stored in the premises for as long as between three to four years without been attended to.

Though our correspondent made several investigative visits to the office of the officer in charge of the Medical Store, Pharmacist Habu Santana to react on the allegations, he could not be accessed and as at 10:30 am Thursday (14/06/2018), our correspondent was told that he was not on seat and no one among the supporting staff was ready to divulge his cell phone number.

Further findings by our correspondent also revealed that there is high-level conspiracy revolving around the delivery of the equipment that has been in the store almost four years now by the firm contracted to deliver them.

A reliable source told our correspondent that the major problem was that there was no proper contractual agreement concerning the delivery of the equipment, because according to him “due process was not followed in the deal, thus, making it difficult for hospitals to make requests for certain equipment that they are lacking”.

The impeccable source added that the equipment, worth about N4.4 billion, was said to be delivered to the store based on verbal agreement from government officials who he said he could not mention to our correspondent.

With the situation, apart from the many general and cottage hospitals in the state, both primary and secondary health facilities that are in need of these equipments in both the rural and urban centres, there is the ultra-modern Women and Children Hospital in Gombe as well as the Snakebite Hospital in Kaltungo which structures have been built and completed by the present administration over two years ago, people of the State have been expecting the take-off of these very important facilities.

Efforts to get the reaction of the State Government over this development proved abortive because as at the time of filing this report, the State Commissioner of Health, Dr Kennedy Ishaya was not on hand to answer questions from our correspondent as he was said to have travelled out of the State on official assignment.