The Two Unseen Hands Behind The Transformation Of Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital (DASH) Lafia
Rabiu Omaku
Despite the uncommon commitment of the immediate past governor of Nasarawa State,Umaru Tanko Al-Makura to rejuvenate the only tertiary health facility in the state,the Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital (DASH) by building a new clinic complex with enough office accommodations, the hospital was grappling with grim situation of deficit of doctors, not until the coming of governor Abdullahi Sule’s administration whose mainstay was consolidation and continuity of key projects conceived by his predecessors.
The state governor in holistic steps to march words with action approved the appointment of over 200 workforce with a majority number of doctors nurses,Nurses,Radiographers, Radiologist, Pharmacists and amongst others, the new appointment to a greater measure addressed the mass exodus of doctors by blocking the gaps.
All the achievements recorded in Dalhatu Araf Specialist hospital will not be unconnected to the resilience and doggedness of Engineer Abdullahi Sule and his foot soldier, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) Dr.Ikrama Hassan who is the clear definition of a workaholic and exemplary leader.
It was a total shift under the two musketeers with the introduction of e-payment in DASH, the hospital has realized a huge amount of revenue as well as blocking leakages in the system, is never business as usual as patients and relatives alike have to pay, shows evidence of payment before been attended to not like before that patient will pay hospital bills manually as cases of abscondment from settling hospital bill was soon rampant in the past.
The incumbent administration of governor Abdullahi Sule has made a commitment to procure a “state of the art City Scan machine” which was a very sensitive and sophisticated equipment only found in a few hospitals like National Hospital, Abuja,Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) , the machine if fully installed will reduce the pains of traveling far away for treatment.
It was gathered that it will cost one patient approximately N50,000 to N60,000 for just one scanning while if a patient is going out of the state capital that needed an emergency will hire an ambulance which is capital intensive also, the Chief Medical Director in an interview said a patient on an emergency outside the state for City Scan needed at least N70,000 to N80,000 with the ambulance but if is in Lafia the highest amount will be either N40,000 to N45,000.
The Chief Medical Director,Ikrama Hassan in a concerted effort to address the influx of patients and relatives amongst other congestion the hospital has built barriers within the hospital environment making it business unusual for relatives to take over the entire inhabitant, making life unbearable to doctors and nurses alike.
Dr. Ikrama Hassan, said the hospital has made significant progress in the delivery of quality healthcare services to the people of the state,Dr. Ikrama explained that the state’s specialist hospital was well equipped in terms of infrastructure and medical facilities to provide efficient medical services.
Dr. Hassan disclosed that the hospital is now filled with qualified doctors, Nurses, and other hospital personnel that render services to patients effectively. the CMD has transformed the hospital which was battling with a deficit of offices before DASH has just 10 but toddy can boost of having about 50 offices, and increased the number of clinics from 5 to 10 with clinics and wards having their own image1.JPGimage2.JPGimage6.JPGimage4.JPGimage5.JPGimage3.JPGoffices.
The policy of “no face mask no entry was introduced by the management of DASH at the hit of coronavirus pandemic a policy that is still effective in the hospital,
Dr.Ikrama in a concerted effort to tackle the incessant breakdown and malfunctioning of sophisticated equipment purchased by the state government said the stringent measure has been taken to enter into Public Private Partnership (PPP) saying is the only way to save some of the costly machines like the CT scan machine.
CT scan machine simply known as a computed Tomography scanning machine is a state of the art equipment that cannot be comparable to the x-ray machine, rather is a modern body scanning equipment that is far better than an x-ray, it creates cross-sectional images of the body, in essence, these images provide more detailed information than the former, this shows soft tissues, blood vessels, and bones in various part of the body.
The machine within 10 to 30 minutes detects cancer as well as shows tumor shape and size and is painless, the machine especially CT-guided biopsy can remove a small piece of tissue, and guide needles into the tumor while the Radio Frequency Ablation (RFA).
“under the PPP arrangement, ours as a hospital we owned the facilities but it will be handled by those experts, not like ours that is full of Shifts and you know during the shift different people will come in to operate one machine”.
The CMD said arrangements are on top gear to install the long-awaited “City Scan “which was another machine meant to check ailments, he said money to the tune of N20m was recently released for the procurement of a standby generator that can power the equipment with hazel.
Nasarawa state governor, Engineer Abdullahi Sule in his desire to pursue a holistic, efficient, and effective healthcare delivery in the state tertiary health facilities.
The quick response by governor Abdullahi Sule to bring better hands into DASH was to revitalize the health sector by making it stand the taste of time, the governor did not relent despite the enormous approach taken, other tremendous achievement was the immediate completion of the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Lafia , a project conceived by Umaru Tanko Al-Makura.
The current governor did not relent in ensuring the completion of the National Centre for Disease Control And Research Centre, a centre vested with the treatment, and discovery of new ailments like Ebola,Engineer Abdullahi Sule to change the ugly scenarios in the health sector which was meant to decongest DASH commissioned the two model hospitals in Akwanga and Nasarawa local respectively.
Other remarkable impact of governor Abdullahi Sule was the commissioning of the two model hospitals by reducing the number of people from Nasarawa ,Toto and Umaisha accessing Medicare in Gwagwalada ,the governor also extend his hands of fellowship to people at the grassroots by embarking on the renovation and expansion of 61 Primary Healthcare (PHC) ,9 general hospitals, the N1bn invested was from the “Save One Million Lives” (SOML) which was a pilot scheme of the federal government health project with Nasarawa state as one of the benefiting state.
Similarly, the present administration of the governor has exhibited a clear demonstration of his sterling leadership style to derive home qualitative healthcare delivery in the state by sponsoring 12 nurses for their master’s degree and postgraduate studies, moreso, the incumbent governor launched the Nasarawa State Health Insurance (NASHIA) meant to strengthen health care with the sole aimed of providing affordable and quality healthcare to compliment the federal government National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
Barely three years in office, the Shendam road landlord succeeded in conducting free eye treatment to over 5000 beneficiaries ranging from glaucoma cut across the three senatorial zones, the state, it could be recalled that governor Abdullahi Sule handed over the 160 bed space specialist hospital to the management of the federal university of Lafia last year to kick-start University Teaching Hospital, the multi-million naira structure was built by the immediate past governor, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura.
