THE TRUE STATE OF THINGS IN FACULTY OF MEDICINE KADUNA STATE UNIVERSITY INTRO The Kaduna State University Faculty of medicine started in 2009 after the advisory stage of accreditation was given to the school by MDCN (Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria) in 2008. It will amaze you to know after 6 years they are still at that stage. First set of students were admitted in 2009/2010 academic session. Subsequent admissions were given each session with this years’ expected before the year runs out and will be the 6th admission. Looking at the impossibility of finishing the hospital at millennium city for clinical studies in good time, the then Yakowa’s government was advised to upgrade the Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital to be used as Teaching Hospital for clinical studies and tertiary health care services to the people of the state before the completion of the Hospital at millennium city to avoid unnecessary stagnation of students. The upgrade project was awarded in October 2012 to be completed in 2013. Unfortunately after the demise of Sir PIY, the project has suffered a huge set-back. The pioneer class was in their 5th year in the university while still in 300 level (pre-clinical arm) due to the non-availability of a Teaching Hospital and lack of accreditation by both Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria and NUC. ‘’DEVELOPMENTS’’ The entire students body made several attempts to draw the attention of the State Government to their plights using various measures including attempting to protest. The state government in its ‘’wisdom’’ decided to transfer the pioneer class to Uganda to avoid the embarrassment the students were causing her. This is the breakdown of the transfer to Kampala Int. University info: Duration of clinical studies: 3.5 years Tuition fees: N 150 million Upkeep: N 105 million Total: N 255 million This amount, if pumped into the Barau Dikko project could have solved most, if not all the major requirements for accreditation or at least get a partial accreditation for the students to start clinical studies while the work continues. CURRENT STATE OF THINGS AT BARAU DIKKO SPECIALIST HOSPITAL The Hospital project has had an insignificant improvement ever since the new government came on board. A lot of the projects have seen very little or no improvement. ICU/Dialysis center has been abandoned. Academic building has only improved throughout this year by just the addition of a roof which is taking more than two months to complete (August till date). Painting of the main Hospital block has stopped. The pathology lab is not supplied with equipment. MDCN rejected the Radiology and Accident and Emergency units because they are both too small. The two are now to be converted to A&E while a new site is to be found for Radiology department (and this project is yet to start). All other works in various departments are moving at a very slow pace as if the Hospital will be needed by the medical students in the next five years or so. Some days, no worker is seen on site while very few are seen on days they are on site. No department is currently ready for clinical studies. Clinical lecturers were employed a year ago some on permanent basis while others on contract and all are been paid salaries monthly without doing any work and some are rounding up their sabbatical leave to depart soon. The pre-clinical arm also has shortage of facilities e.g lecture halls and partially equipped laboratories coupled with low staff strength. Findings from reliable sources reveals that claims by the school management and state government that funds have been released for the project are all but LIES. Adequate funds have not been given to the contractors hence their decision to stay off the site. Note: Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital is the largest and NO. 1 state owned Health facility in the state and has been shut down for 2 years now. This has affected health care delivery in the state grossly as other neighboring hospitals like Yusuf Dantsoho Memorial Hospital suffer the pressure from the influx of too many patients and limited facilities. KASU MANAGEMENT BOARD MEMBERS TRANSFERING THEIR CHILDREN ABROAD All school management staff who had their children in the faculty have sought for transfer for their children ‘’oversea’’ knowing the situation of things in the faculty and seeing no sign of anything good coming soon. The school librarian and Registrar are examples. BREAKDOWN OF CLASSES IN THE FACULTY With the transfer of the pioneer class this is the breakdown of the students left in the faculty: 300 level (A): Admitted 2010/2011 session. All things being equal should have been rounding up their 400 level by November this year to be in 500 level by January but currently still in 300 level. They are currently 31 in number. 300 level (B): admitted 2011/2012 session should have been rounding up their 300 level now to move to 400 level by January but are yet to start 300 level. They are 31 in number. 200 level: Admitted 2012/2013 session should have been rounding up their 200 level now but just started the 200 level 3 months ago. They are currently 33 in number. 100 level: admitted 2013/2014 session are currently rounding up their 100 level and expected to be in 200 level by January. The implication is we will be having two 200 level classes by December this year. New admission: A new set of 100 level is expected by the end of the year. Note: This implies by the end of the year there will be 5 sets of students in the pre-clinical arm of the faculty when ideally it should be 3 sets (in these 5, the set in Uganda is not included). With all these number of classes all piled up in the preclinical arm, the school management have adopted an unfair measure to “reduce” the pressure. These includes: slow pace lectures, prolonging the faculty’s calendar, unnecessary extension of holidays etc. OUR PRAYER That the school management and state government will see this issue as an emergency which needs to be taken care of immediately to end the unnecessary waste of students’ years in school and for better tertiary health care services to the state.
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 07:32:16 +0000
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