…Says: Plans on-going to establish One, Automation still way forward
The management of the Federal Teaching Hospital,FTH, Owerri,Imo state has come out publicly, to clear the air on the issue of its purported ownership and running of a Nursing School.
It also expressed its readiness to, not only stick with its policy of automation, but also to extend same to every facet of the institutions activities, as well as continuously upgrade the process, in view of its numerous benefits.
The Chief Medical Director, CMD, of the Health institution, with tripartite mandate of research, training and service, Dr Kingsley Achigbu, made these disclosures, in his office during an interaction with journalists, recently.
Reacting to the question of whether the institution owns and runs a nursing school, the CMD debunked the claim, as false and unfounded, stressing that there is nothing like that.
According to him, the true story is that there used to be a Nursing School owned by Imo State government in the institution, but it was later relocated away from the hospital, and since then no other nursing school has been established by the institution.
He disclosed that contrary to that untrue claim, which he accused dubious individuals of bandying around, possibly for ulterior motives, the institution has only recently started working on plans to establish a nursing school.
It was for that reason,he further stated that, the management held a consultative meeting with the Registrar of the Nursing Council in Abuja, pointing out that all things being equal, the registrar would be in the institution soon, on what he termed advisory visit, during which he would advise the institution on how to go about the project.
” We have only started the process. We have an idea. We’re still looking at the short term steps; but between now and next year,we would have started serious work.” He said.
The Chief Medical Director, enjoined the public to disregard any claims of Federal Teaching Hospital owning a nursing school, as well as to know that the institution neither have office on the Internet, nor conducts its businesses online.
According to him, FTH, has a physical office where its activities are carried out , even as he urged members of the public who may be in doubt on any issue (s), concerning the institution activities, to come to the institution to seek clarifications.
Dr Achigbu who also discussed the automation process which the institution embraced for enhanced service delivery, argued that the process still remains one of the best decisions the management under him had taken.
Noting that as a human system there’s no way the process can be perfect,as minor hiccups that have trailed it have shown, he however, insisted that for the management it was not only the way to go, but also that, they are putting measures in place to upgrade and expand the process to all facets of the institution’s operations.
This,he argued stemmed from the management s understanding that automation is the new frontier in administration and management all over the world, as well as the fact that it’s a smarter, more cost effective, and efficient management strategy, pointing out that it has reduced the institutions printing cost by almost 70%.
He stressed that the institution understands well that supporting systems for the process, could sometimes experience glitches, hence the painstaking effort to configure it in such a way as to allow for minimal hitches.
Besides, he disclosed that the institution maintains what he called Standard Operating Procedure, SOP, which enables it to mitigate challenges like network challenges.
Dr Achigbu while posting that every new system normally have teething challenges, noted that rather than discontinue the automation process, the institution is working towards upgrading and expanding the process, listing the new area they would soon diversify into as telemedicine.
The CMD explained that though the federal government has been doing it’s best in supporting the institution fulfill its duties to the public, the emergency nature of its responsibilities still leaves it grappling with a lot of operational challenges.
He enumerated these challenges to include bed spaces, which is a fallout of the daily upsurge of service seekers; paucity of vehicles, buses, ambulances, service vehicles for personnel, for the use of the institution and its out stations in different parts of the state.
He, however, identified power problem as the biggest challenge confronting the institution, even as he stressed that the huge amount being expended in providing 24/7 power to the institution, is a direct fallout of the fact that its services have to do with human life.
