By Ahmed Ahmed
Dr Yusuf Bara, the Chief Medical Director of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH), Bauchi, says inadequate water and power supply are major lingering challenges affecting the hospital.
Bara said this during an oversight visit by the Senate Committee on Health, Secondary and Tertiary Services to the hospital on Friday in Bauchi.
He also said that the facility is facing serious electricity tariff problems beyond what the management can handle.
He told the committee members that “our major challenges are inadequate power and water supply because of the topography.
“We want to appeal to the Senate to look into our plight and help the hospital to have some form of renewable energy source that will reduce the load in terms of the amount we spend on energy.”
According to him, the hospital, which receives more than 1000 patients daily, is also working assiduously to improve on the issue of manpower.
He explained that “as you can see, we embarked on several projects to enable the facility to provide standard services to citizens.”
He appealed to patients to bear with the management over cumbersome processes, saying measures would be put in place to enhance better services and accountability.
In her remark, the Chairperson of the committee, Dr Ipalibo Banigo, said the CMD and his team are passionate about providing health services to citizens.
She said that the committee is happy with ongoing expansion and renovation work at the facility, which is from the 2023 budget.
Banigo pledged to look into the hospital challenges and assured that something would be done to address them