The Victims Support Fund, VSF, committee headed by General Theophilus Danjuma (rtd.) yesterday issued cheques worth N140 million to seven major hospitals in the North-east to enable them continue with the medical treatment of all injured victims of Boko Haram insurgency.
This came after a memorandum of understanding was signed between officials of the VSF and the benefiting health facilities, which saw each of their heads receiving cheques worth N20 million.
The University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) and the State Specialists Hospital were the two hospitals selected for the grant in Borno State, while other hospitals in Yobe, Adamawa and Gombe states were also said to have benefited.
Presenting the cheques to the benefiting health facilities at several grant award ceremonies, a top official of the VSF, Prof Sunday Ochoche, who stood in for the committee’s chairman, noted that the idea behind the support and the signed memoranda of understanding was to assist the hospitals to continue caring for the victims.
He said their action was in line with the mandates given to them by Nigerians as well as to encourage the hospitals in the good works they have been doing, with the belief that whatever little financial support they are given would add to the hospitals’ capacity and ability to cater for the victims of the violent armed conflict.
Professor Ochoche said the signed MOU would open a working relationship with the hospitals management in such a manner that the target victims of the insurgency will continue to have the right medical treatment without recourse to the problems of lack of resources by the hospitals.
He noted that the N20 million grant was a first phase of the support from the VSF even as he quickly noted that the given amount cannot be enough to cater for the expenses the hospitals incur daily in managing persons brought in with injuries from scenes of blasts or attacks.
He lamented that the VSF committee was yet to get most of the pledges made during the launching of the fund last year and promised that with more redemption of promises, the hospitals would be getting more of such support.
The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Dr Abdurrahman Muhammed Tahir who expressed delight with the coming of the VSF grant said apart from the huge personnel loss that his tertiary health facility had suffered from 2010 to date, the hospital had also incurred debt of over N150 million through free treatment of persons brought to the hospital as victim of Boko Haram insurgency.
He further lamented that until recently that the hospital was assisted with the sum of N30 million by the National Emergency Management (NEMA), the hospital was barely functioning due to overstretched facilities and debt.
Dr. Tahir also mentioned that the Radiology Department of the hospital,which is one of the most crucial areas of the teaching hospital had been grounded for months and could not be fixed because the engineers concerned could not make it to Maiduguri as they fear for their lives.
He however disclosed that he has set up a special committee, tagged UMTH-VSF, which is led by the hospital’s Chairman Medical Advisory Council (CMAC) to handle the administration of the grant in the most transparent and credible manner ever, even as he listed a seven-point terms of reference to guarantee transparency.
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