Abakaliki teaching hospital recruits 1,000 staff members

The Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State on Saturday said it recruited 1,000 staff members in 2013 in its effort to strengthen healthcare delivery.
Alhaji Ado Kibiya, the Chairman of the hospital’s management board, announced the figure in Abakaliki when Governor Martin Elechi of Ebonyi State hosted the board.
According to Kabiya, the recruitment is for both senior and junior staff members, as more than 60 per cent of the new employees were Ebonyi State indigenes.
The chairman said the hospital appreciated the state government’s financial assistance to mission hospitals in the state and is adopting them as its outpost centres.
“We deployed our clinical and ancillary staff to those hospitals to promote qualitative health care delivery to the citizens, especially those dwelling in the rural areas,” he said.
Kibiya listed the hospitals to include the Mile Four Hospital, Abakaliki; Presbyterian Joint Hospital, Uburu; Mater Misericordiae Hospital, Afikpo; Rural Improvement Mission, Ikwo; St. Vincent Hospital, Ndubia; and Primary Health Centre, Ezzagu, among others.
“Statistics show that the estimated annual delivery at Mile Four Hospital, Abakaliki for instance is 4,000, as we have been able to reduce the mortality and morbidity rate in the hospital since we established our presence there,” he said.
He noted that the hospital had inaugurated two gigantic structures for the take-off of its school of nursing and midwifery.
The chairman said that the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria had already inspected its facilities.
He said: “Satisfied with the quality of the facilities, the council has approved the initial intake of 100 students (50 in each department), as advertisement for admission will be made soon.
“We are also planning to inaugurate a diagnostic laboratory exclusively for Lassa Fever either within the hospital’s premises or anywhere in the state to check the occurrence of the disease.”
Kibiya appealed for the state government’s assistance in areas as provision of ambulances to cover its rural outposts, buses for medical students, expansion of its structure and facilities, among others.
Responding, Elechi commended the hospital for its giant strides in the promotion of healthcare delivery in the state and assured it of his co-operation.
He said: “We commend you mostly for the way you handled your recruitment with due consideration to geographical spread.
“My commissioner for health and the secretary to the state government will meet with your chief medical director to synergise on the issues you raised to ascertain ways of addressing them.”