Although, the sum of N698m has been budgeted for capital project within the facility, the President Mohammadu Buhari administration and the Senate are however looking at patients paying for medical services rendered to them by the state clinic. The clinic, which got zero capital vote in 2017, was in the news last year over its inability to cater for patients with minor ailments. The Wife of the President, Mrs . Aisha Buhari, had raised the alarm that the clinic lacked tools as small as syringes.
While the permanent secretary, Arabi said that the hospital had been relying on the government allocations for its operations, disclosing that all medical services rendered by the facility were free. The Chairman of the committee, Senator Tijjani Kaura, however, proposed that patients should be charged for services at the clinic, saying that the revenue would serve as the running cost of the facility. Kaura said it would be better for the clinic to charge patients for services rendered to them rather than to be waiting for allocations to come before it could carry out its functions.
The permanent secretary stressed that the maintenance of the medical centre was expensive and the money is not coming.
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