Psychiatric Hospital MD Advocates Passage Of Mental Health Bill …..as He Recieves NUJ Award
By Our Correspondent
The Medical Director and Chief Executive Officer MD/CEO of the Federal Neuro Psychiatric Hospital Kaduna, Professor Abdulkareem Jika Yusuf says the passage of the Mental Health Bill before the National Assembly (NASS) is now imperative more than ever before.
According to the MD who stated this shortly after receiving an award of excellence from the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) New Nigerian Newspapers (NNN) Chapel, the rate at which people suffers from mental illness now requires more measures to address the menace before it gets out of hand.
Towards this end, he advocated for the passage of the mental health bill before the NASS, which he said will help address some of the challenges associated with the mental health related issues.
Professor Yusuf also identified drug abuse as yet another challenge affecting the society, and therefore called on relevant stakeholders, philanthropists to come to the aide of the hospital to help in meeting with demands from the high number of patients who trooped to the hospital on daily basis.
” At the moment , the hospital has challenges of availability of enough bed spaces for patient, because the hospital takes care of patients from the North West and North Central region, so we need more infrastructure to career for the increasing number of patients.
” The hospital currently has eight consultant psychiatrists and 21 Resident Doctors which is grossly inadequate to meet up with large number of patients with mental challenges, hence we also need more manpower in order to effectively discharge our services”.
He commended the leadership of the NUJ, NNN Chapel for finding him and the management of the hospital worthy of the award which he said will further spur them to redouble their efforts for more successes in terms of service delivery.
Earlier, the NUJ, NNN Chapel Chairman, Comrade Nicholas Dekera said, the team of investigators from the chapel carried out an independent investigation on service delivery of the hospital under her Investigate, Rate and Award (IRA) program and found the hospital leaving up to expectation worthy of an award to encourage them.
He said, the hospital has faired well in the area of enhancing quality care for patients, clean environment and availability of drugs for patients at subsidized rates among other indices of outstanding performance.
