JUTH: An Abode of Corrupt Medical and Administrative Practices

By: Balami Lazarus.

Recently I was listening to Town Hall Meeting, a popular radio program aired by JFM 101.9 FM Jos, where issues concerning public and private bodies are being discussed for the sake of good governance/corporate practices. Their topic, as it were, was on public hospitals, focusing on Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH). With rapt attention, I listened and followed them bumper to bumper as they unraveled the medical and administrative roots in this federal institutional hospital that was established in 1975.
I had wanted to write on JUTH sometime last year, having written some pieces on the former CMD, Prof. Edmund Banwat, on how he mismanaged the hospital, i.e., the medical and administrative sections of JUTH, during his tyrannical and militarized tenure of 8 wasted years of greed and crazed corruption. He was also a thorn in the flesh of staff and patients’ relations. Therefore, the radio program provided me with the opportunity to write this article.
Before I go further, my mind went to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), where one sees and feels medical excellence in healthcare delivery as caregivers and life-savers, a common practice in our health system.
Considering this, I sincerely, with all my heart, give kudos to Prof. Ahmed Ahidjo, the CMD, and his hardworking and patriotic management team, who are out to maintain and promote the standard of health excellence over and above other federal institutional hospitals. Unlike our subject/topic of the Town Hall Meeting Radio Programme.
          
 Any journalist that is practicing or has practiced on the Plateau will agree with me that there are a lot of issues to write on. But my challenge with some of them is their nonchalant attitude on so many pressing issues that have a direct effect on the citizens of the state. But hardly do you find them writing on these issues—water, electricity, roads, security, and many others.
      
Take it from me, that JUTH is a place where you find many annoying medical and administrative black spots in her departments, sections, units, and corridors that need no euphemism garment when one is writing or speaking of JUTH. Therefore, my investigations and sources available are clear indications that JUTH is shrouded in unethical and questionable professional practices in her systems.

The coming on board of Dr. Pokop Bupwatda Wushipba as CMD on 30th August 2022 was applauded by staff and workers of JUTH, including the good people of Plateau, with a happy bye for tyrant Prof. Edmund Banwat, as he was once called and addressed as such. Dr. Pokop was considered and seen as that CMD who will bring changes in JUTH in terms of professional medical healthcare delivery and good administrative practices. But “here we are experiencing a replay of Prof. Edmund Banwat’s dreadful and horrific days.”. According to sources within JUTH, Dr. Pokop Bupwatda’s tenure might likely be enveloped in a medical and administrative mess characterized by “bad health care services with unprofessional practices by doctors and nurses.”. This is the beginning of the negativities in JUTH with Dr. Bupwatda as CMD.
    
In consideration of the bad narratives on JUTH, I will add a style to this work by itemizing what is currently happening in JUTH: Gross medical misconduct by doctors and nurses. Negligence of duties by medical and administrative personnel. Refusal to collect delivery items from about-to-be-put-to-bed mothers by matrons and nurses because they did not buy from them. Referral center to hospitals/clinics owned by many JUTH doctors. JUTH lacks social amenities like water and electricity. Unsanitized and dirty premises.
   
To counter such corrupt activities in our public hospitals, there should be a monitoring unit for federal and state hospitals. This, I believe, will go a long way in checkmating these corrupt practices in our hospitals.
            
Balami, a Publisher/Columnist, 0836779290

JUTH: An Abode of Corrupt Medical and Administrative Practices