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| Students of School of Post Basic Orthopedic Nursing |
Medical activities in the hospital started with 200 members of staff and three wards, namely, East, West and Female wards. However, the hospital now has a total of 1,000 members of staff with about 10 wards - East, West, Female, Dantata Amenity, New Amenity, Old Amenity, Burns and Plastic, Spinal, Children, Accident and Emergency.
Other doctors who served as medical directors of the hospital include the late Alhaji Umaru Ringim; Dr. Osad Osanwonyi; Dr. E. E. Ojesebholo; the late Prof. E. I. Mbamali; Dr. Olawumi Popoola; Dr. Kabir Abubakar and Dr. M.N Salihu, who took over the mantle of leadership of the hospital in August 2013.
Daily Trust on Sunday gathered that before its commissioning as a national orthopaedic hospital, the facility operated for almost one year as an affiliate of the Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital, Kano. Services rendered in the hospital were limited to the treatment of non-emergency cases.
When it was upgraded, the hospital commenced operation with only one ward and few doctors and nurses under the leadership of Dr. Bryson. Since then, it has operated under different managements, including the Northern Ministry of Health from 1959 -1966; Interim Common Service Agency (1966 -1968); Institute of Health of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (1968-1980); Federal Hospital Management Board (1980-1994); Federal Ministry of Health (1994-2000) and the Kano Management Board (2001 till date).
Although it was established to carter for the needs of the North-West, North-East and North-Central, patients are also received from neighbouring West African countries like Niger Republic, Chad, Cameroun and the Central African Republic.
As a result of its wider coverage, resources and facilities in the hospital are overstretched; hence the need for expansion.
In response to the needs of the hospital, a renowned Kano business mogul, Alhaji Aminu Alhassan Dantata, built an intensive care unit and provided amenity for patients.
As part of expansion, the hospital has witnessed the establishment of the School of Cast Technology, School of Post Basic Orthopaedic Nursing, Spinal Centre, Dental Unit, among others.
The School of Post Basic Orthopaedic Nursing was started since 1965 while the accident and emergency programme was added to the school in 2005. According to the principal, Mr. Wabara Sunday, students from all over the country patronise the school.
Sunday explained that 60 students were admitted into the school for the post basic orthopaedic nursing and accident and emergency programmes respectively. He added that thousands of students had graduated from the school.
He, however, lamented that the school was faced with challenges that are currently affecting its services. He said the major problems were inadequate funding and lack of infrastructures, including students’ hostels.
“Presently, we don’t have enough hostels to accommodate our students. Our students, especially those that come outside Kano, need accommodation close to the school. This problem has remained our task despite our efforts to get more hostels. Because of this problem we only treat our students on the basis of first-come-first-serve.
“We want the government to build more hostels in the school. We have enough teachers, classes and facilities to carter for more than 60 students, but because of inadequate hostels, we cannot admit more the 60 students,” he said.
The School of Cast Technology, which was established in 2012, is the first in Nigeria, and by extension, West Africa, according to its rector, Mr. Thomas Ochimana.
Ochimana, however, lamented that despite the important role of the school to the hospital, it is facing a serious challenge of hostel accommodation. “At present, we cannot admit more than 65 students because we don’t have enough hostels,” he said.
He said the school had so far graduated four sets of 65 students, stressing that with adequate hostels, they could admit more students. According to him, admission into the school is highly competitive due to the demand by students all over the country.
“Presently, we need a bus for transporting our students to other hospitals for further training. We are working closely with other hospitals like the Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital and the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH). This is so because we need to always update the knowledge of our students. So if we can get at least a bus, it will facilitate our training,” he concluded.
Unlike the School of Post Basic Orthopaedic Nursing and School of Cast Technology, which commenced operation some years ago, the Spinal Centre, on other hand, is still under construction. However, work at the site has reached an advanced stage.
Our correspondent observed that the present Spinal Ward accommodates only eight beds while the proposed spinal centre would accommodate over 20 beds. According to the medical director of the hospital, Dr. Muhammad Nuhu Salihu, the centre would be of best standard when completed.
Also, at the New Amenity section of the hospital, a senior health worker told our correspondent that they had been battling with inadequate manpower. He said, “Only one nursing officer and an attendant man the section during the night. Professionally, it is supposed to be one nurse to four patients, but because we don’t have enough personnel, a nurse is handling 14 patients here.”
It was also observed that although the Amenity section has two units of 18 beds each, only one unit is currently operating. According to the senior health personnel, even if the other section was completed, they don’t have enough manpower to man the place.
Daily Trust on Sunday further observed that although the management of the hospital was able to establish a maxillofacial and dental unit to carter for victims of accidents that need the services of dentists, the unit is currently underequipped and understaffed. The unit, which took off in August 2015, is being manned by a consultant, three doctors and a dental technician. Further observation by our correspondent also revealed that facilities in the unit were equally inadequate compared to the scope of coverage of the hospital.
Commenting on the services rendered by the section, Dr. Taureet Oladejo, a consultant noted, “We need more staff in the unit. Sometimes when we receive many victims of accidents we may not be able to treat all of them same day. And by the time the injury takes some hours without treatment, both the patient and the doctors face some challenges. With adequate staff we can treat many patients whenever the need arises.”
It was further observed that although the hospital is being considered as a priority area in terms of supply by the Kano Electricity Distribution Company (KEDCO), it largely depends on a generator for power supply.
Our correspondent reliably gathered that as a result of inadequate personnel, the management of the hospital was forced to close down a 40-bed capacity ward (East Ward) for many years. Though fully equipped, the ward could not be put to use due to lack of staff.
Speaking to Daily Trust on Sunday, the medical director of the hospital, Dr. Muhammad Nuhu Salihu, said management was doing its best to improve on its standard.
“From my assumption of duty as the medical director of the hospital in 2013 till date, I have introduced additional units and programmes. With the little resources at hand, we are managing the hospital to serve the people better.
“The management of the hospital is currently renovating the closed down ward so that as soon as it gets additional personnel, they can take over the place without any delay,” he said.
On the issue of inadequate staff, the medical director said the hospital needed 1,500 personnel, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, medical laboratory scientists; physiotherapists, ward attendants, among others. “Looking at the number of staff presently in the hospital, we can say we need at least 500 additional medical personnel to take care of the growing number of patients,” he noted.
He, however, commended people like Alhaji Aminu Dantata; the late Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero; the present Emir of Kano, Mallam Muhammadu Sanusi ll; Alhaji A. A. Rano and chairman of AMMASCO Company; the Sokoto State Zakkat Commission; Col. Sani Bello (retired); Northern Governors Forum; CRC, FOHA, Indomie company; Pedmic Company; ERS Implant Company, Ortho-support Nigeria Limited and Minjirya Health Services and others for their immense financial contributions to the hospital.
Dailytrust.com.ng | Yusha’u A. Ibrahim, Kano
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