Senate amends TETFund Act to accommodate funding teaching hospitals

Tertiary healthcare facilities in the country are being considered for access to share in the funding disbursed from Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) by the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

University of Benin Teaching hospital (UBTH), University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNNTH), Lagos University Teaching hospital (LUTH), Ahmadu Bello University Teaching hospital (ABUTH) amongst others are to benefit from the ongoing amendment of the Law.

The TETFund was established to regularly intervene in boosting the infrastructure of tertiary and in some cases provide other supports to enhance educational services at the tertiary level of education.

However, the Senate through Senator Betty Apiafi has set in motion a process to amend the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) Act No 17 LFN 2004 to provide more funding to tertiary hospitals in Nigeria.

The move was in its bid to facilitate more funding access for tertiary health institutions in the country so that they can cater for patients with specialised needs who visit these institutions in different parts of the country.

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Betty in her lead debate stated that the mandate of these tertiary institutions covers health-care delivery, teaching and training of medical and dental practitioners from Undergraduate to postgraduate level and Medical research.

She said carrying out these mandate by these institutions requires funding.

The Senator representing Rivers West Senatorial District said the Bill is a forthright amendment that seeks to amend section 7 of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund Act to incorporate Tertiary Teaching Hospitals as beneficiaries of the TetFUND Scheme.

The proposed amendments are as follows: section 7(2) (a) of the Act is amended by inserting the words “and Tertiary Teaching Hospitals” after the word “institutions” to read; “(a) Funding of all public Tertiary Educational Institutions and Tertiary Teaching Hospitals.”

Another amendment in section 7(3) of the Act proposed to be amended as follows: (3) The distribution of funds shall be in the ratio of 1.5: 0.9: 0.9: 0.7 as between Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education and Tertiary Teaching Hospitals, that is 17.5% of the total fund be deducted for Tertiary Teaching Hospitals.

She said Nigerian universities, polytechnics and colleges of education have improved their infrastructures, training needs and research through the TETFund Scheme maintaining that Tertiary Health Institutions are also educational institutions that require drastic development to enable them to perform their core functions effectively.