Kano contributory healthcare enrollees decry poor services

Barely eight months after launching of Kano State Contributory Healthcare Scheme, enrolees of the programme have started groaning over alleged poor services in most of the designated hospitals. Chronicle’s investigation revealed that the scheme, which was initiated to make healthcare services affordable and accessible to the beneficiaries, was charaterised by some irregularities, thereby making the […]

Barely eight months after launching of Kano State Contributory Healthcare Scheme, enrolees of the programme have started groaning over alleged poor services in most of the designated hospitals.

Chronicle’s investigation revealed that the scheme, which was initiated to make healthcare services affordable and accessible to the beneficiaries, was charaterised by some irregularities, thereby making the enrollees lose confidence in the programme.

Some of the enrollees who spoke to our reporters, said since the programme kicked started, they could not feel its significant, identifying poor dispensation of drugs in the hospitals as their major concern.

Over 200, 000 Kano state civil servants have been enrolled into the scheme, hence, contributing part of their salaries for the health insurance scheme.

The contributions are being deducted on monthly basis directly from the enrollees’ salaries base on grade levels.

Our reporters gathered that state civil servants on grade levels 7 and 9 contribute N1,600 and N2,000 respectively.

Before the bill establishing the scheme was passed into law, a public hearing was held with key stakeholders including labour leaders and civil society organizations for their respective inputs, part of the resolutions at the public hearing was to make the scheme optional for the state civil servants.

Some of the enrollees who spoke to our reporters claimed that they were being coerced into the system even though it was supposed to be optional.

They alleged that the services being rendered in the hospitals were not commensurate to their monthly contributions.

When our reporters visited some of the designated hospitals for the scheme, the first concern noted was the difficulty some of the enrollees encounter in locating their service cards from heap of hundreds of thousands dumped in the hospitals.

At Muhammad Abdullahi Wase Specialist Hospital, our reporters observed that even though there is a unit set aside for the scheme, no enough doctors were provided to attend to hundreds of enrollees seeking care under the scheme.

As at the time our reporters visited the unit, only three doctors were seen attending to hundreds of patients, a development that made many patients to spend the whole day on queue.

A patient, Malama Rakiya Bashir faulted the whole process, lamenting that she had spent many hours on the queue because of shortage of manpower at the unit.

“I came here since 7:00 am and now it is 4:00pm, I am yet to see the doctor.  How can it be possible for the three doctors to see over two hundreds patients daily?” she complained.

Rakiya, therefore, appealed to the management of the hospital to provide additional doctors to the unit to carter for the demands of the enrollees.

Another patient, Malam Abdullahi Yusuf alleged that most of the doctors posted to the unit were students on housemanship, lamenting that “If you can check this unit the doctors are all young doctors on housemanship. I don’t know the reason why we are treated this way.”

Most of the patients alleged that they did not get drugs prescribed to them by the doctors from the hospitals’ pharmacy, rather they ended up buying them with their money.

A teacher in one of the tertiary schools in the state, who craved anonymity, said that he took his two sick children at different times to Muhammad Abdullahi Wase hospital but he could not get any drug for both of them.

“After following the long queue at the pharmacy unit of the hospital, I was told that there was no medicine and when I asked them what I should do, they said I should go outside and buy.

“If this continues I do not see any benefit of the scheme because I had to buy the medicine for my two children worth N3, 000 after I have been deducted more than N4,000 monthly from my salary.”

Hajiya Binta Lawan, a patient at Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital said that the annoying thing for the scheme was that the only drug one could get was paracetamol.

“The only medicine one can get in this hospital is paracetamol, we buy the rest of the expensive drugs outside. Each time I come to the hospital I don’t get the medicine prescribed by the doctors. There was a time I bought drugs at the cost of N4,000.”

Most of the patients called on the government to investigate the way the scheme is being run to enable the beneficiaries enjoy their deducted money.

The Chairman, Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) Kano state chapter, Comrade Kabiru Ado Minjibir confirmed receiving  complains from  many enrollees, assuring that the union would not leave any stone unturned in its efforts to find a lasting solution to the problems.

“Last two weeks a round table discussion for labour leaders in Kano was convened in Kaduna concerning this agency and some of the challenges were raised particularly at our primary and secondary healthcare facilities. Already a committee has been set up to review the activities of the agency. The NLC will also liaise with other relevant stakeholders including the office of the head of service to tackle the issue. If our money is being deducted on monthly basis, there is no reason whatsoever drugs should not be available in our hospitals,” he said.

Comrade Minjibir charged labour leaders across the 44 local government areas of the state to monitor health facilities at primary healthcare centres within their jurisdiction and report to the union for necessary action.

However, the Executive Secretary, Kano State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency (KSCHMA), Dr Halima Muhammad Mijinyawa blamed the enrollees over alleged long hours of waiting at the health facilities before they could be attended to.

She said “at the initial stage we told the enrollees to choose hospitals close to them so as to save them cost of transportation and even the traffic in the hospitals, but we observed that majority of them do not heed to this advice as they went ahead to register with big hospitals within the city. Mind you, only four doctors have been assigned to the scheme in each hospital, with this large turnout everyday how can four doctors attend to tens of thousands of people at a very short time”.

She also debunked the allegation that only substandard drugs were being dispensed to the enrollees, saying all the 262 hospitals registered with the scheme had been instructed not to buy drugs from anywhere but Kano state Drugs and Medical Consumables Supply Agency (DMCSA).

She said drugs purchased through the agency would not be substandard, urging the enrollees to report poor services experienced in any hospital to the agency for appropriate action.