State House Medical Centre, wey dey provide healthcare services for the President, Vice President, and their families, plus staff working in the State House and Presidential Villa, Abuja, dey battle with serious staff shortage.
The medical centre’s health records department, especially, dey struggle to operate at optimal capacity because of lack of trained health information officers. The few available personnel dey stretched thin across various wards and clinics, leading to longer waiting times for patients and increasing trend of misfiling of patient records.
The annual report of the State House Medical Centre reveal say one trained officer dey cover three clinics and handle multiple job schedules. This situation make patient waiting time increase, and some professional jobs like data reporting dey left undone. Staff members from the administrative department, who no get formal training in handling records, dey posted to complement the workforce, but dem only fit do filing and retrieving, which lead to more misfiling of patient records.
The medical centre, wey establish in 1976, aim to be a reference point in digitalised and standard health records management. However, the department’s staff strength no dey adequate, with only 16 personnel, including eight trained health records professionals, five non-professionals, and three National Youth Service Corps members. In 2023, only four employees undergo training on the international classification of Diseases and Electronic Health Records Management System.
Despite significant funding allocated to the State House’s medical infrastructure, including N33.3bn from 2016 to 2022 and N455.2m in 2023, the staffing shortfall persist. The 2024 budget, signed into law by President Bola Tinubu, allocate N1.33bn to the medical facility, but the staffing issues remain a major challenge.
A senior official familiar with SHMC operations reveal say the State House dey recruit more doctors and trained personnel to fill the staffing shortfall. The Permanent Secretary of the State House, Olufunso Adebiyi, also announce plans to fully digitalise the operations of the State House by November 2024, which include allocating N10bn for the digitalisation process.
