Itam Abang Calls for Urgent Rehabilitation of State General Hospitals, Employment of competent Medical Doctors

The Member representing Boki 1 State Constituency In the Cross River State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Dr. Itam Abang during a plenary sitting in Calabar has Sponsored another Motion urgently calling on the State Government to rehabilitate all General Hospitals in the State and build new General Hospitals for Local Government Areas without one. 

Her background to this Motion unravel the state of decadence the General Hospital Calabar and by extension, the whole General Hospitals in the State are currently experiencing due to lack of adequate medical facilities, Medical Doctors and Nurses with particular emphasis on the General Hospital Calabar where the State Government contract with Consultant Medical Doctors from the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital once engaged by the Sen. Liyel Imoke Administration to hold precedence in the General Hospital Calabar and other General Hospitals in the State has been relieved. Continuing, She revealed that her recent visit to the General Hospital Calabar was overtaken by the dead of two patients who died due to lack of competent Doctors and medical facilities in the Hospital. 

She also announced the dead of about three women who were under labour in the period where residents Doctors embarked on Strike in solidarity to their colleague who was abducted in an incessant kidnapping attract on the medical practitioners. Other Co-sponsors of the Motion and Members who contributed expounded with verifiable anecdotes to support the Motion. 

Her prayers in the Motion where therefore adopted as resolutions of the House that: 

1. Cross River State Government should urgently rehabilitate all General and Cottage Hospitals through provision of basic facilities to ensure quality service delivery. 

2. That the State Government should review the Salaries of Medical Doctors to stem massive transfer to Federal Institutions. 

3. In view of the temporary suspension of employment in the State Civil Service, Special approval should be granted to the recruitment of medical Doctors and other medical professionals to provide services in General and Cottage Hospitals across the State, and the Ayade Care to be Carried out in General Hospitals. 

4. To compliment The Manpower demand in the health sector, the State Government should reactivate its voluntary service agreement with the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital to enable Consultants render their expertise in State secondary health care as previously agreed 2011. 

When quizzed by journalists in an interview, the Rt. Hon said the absence of a General Hospital in her Local Government Area of Boki primarily motivated the sponsorship of the Motion and also, the prevalent death of women under Labor. 

Earlier in the session, the Rt. Hon. Speaker of the Cross River State 9th Assembly, Hon. Williams Eteng Jones had announced the constituting of House Committees to attend to oversight functions and to help the House to be effective in its legislative processes. 

The Rt. Hon. Dr. Itam Abang was announced the Chairman, Committee on Education and Deputy Chairman, Committee on Water Resources and Sanitation. She is also a member of several other House Committees. In another development, Rt. Hon. Hilary Bisong of Boki 11 State Constituency is heading the House Committee on Petroleum, Gas Resources and Development and Deputizing another.