No fewer than 1,119 indigent patients got free treatment from the paupers’ fund, a humanitarian intervention floated by the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Yola, to cater for the medical needs of indigent patients.
The paupers’ fund was inaugurated in 2015 by the Professor Awwal Abubakar led management as a response to the challenge of addressing the medical needs of indigent patients who hitherto were turned away due to their inability to cater for their medical bills.
Making the disclosure during the inauguration of the new leadership of the paupers’ fund, Wednesday, at the medical facility, the Medical Director of FMC Yola, Professor Awwal Abubakar said, so far, the fund has realised over N68m since its inauguration.
He said more than N54m out of the lot have been expended to take charge of the various ailments bedevilling indigent patients ranging from mild to severe cases.
He noted that touched by the plight of patients who do not access medical services due to poverty, he decided to liaise with respected and trustworthy elders of the community on the need to form such platform to cater for the needs of the poor in the society.
Abubakar said, the move has paid premium as the fund treated 54 patients in 2016 at the cost of N1,106,608 adding that in 2017, the fund upset the medical bill of 165 patients at the cost of N7,553,700 while in 2018 the fund paid the medical bills of 219 patients at the cost of N11,123,200.
In the same vein, the professor disclosed that the fund in 2019 upset the bills of 422 patients at the cost N23,351,000 noting that in 2020 the fund catered for the health needs of 254 patients at the cost of N8,984,618 while from Jan to April 2021 the hospital has spent N2,032,132 on 87 patients.
Abubakar noted that the funds are subjected to high level of transparency and accountability as no one among the management staff has access to them and beneficiaries of the fund have to be scrutinized at different levels to get certification.
He noted that the funds which the hospital realised by treating indigent patients from the fund are then wired into the TSA account of the federal government.
He said as a result of the success of the fund, many hospitals across the nation are coming to FMC to understudy the process adding that the hospital has received an award of excellence in recognition of the success of the fund.
He thanked the members of the paupers’ fund and the staff of the hospital for their diligence and commitment which is responsible for the high level of success recorded since the fund’s inauguration.
Highlights of the event was the inauguration of the new chairman of the fund, Alhaji Abubakar Iya Umar, a former DCG of Customs who succeeded the immediate past chairman of the fund, Alhaji Sulaiman Abdullahi who died early this year.
In his speech shortly after he was inaugurated, the new chairman of the fund, Alh Abubakar Iya Umar pledged to do his best to keep the legacies of the immediate past chairman alive.
He thanked the Professor Awwal Abubakar led management for the humanitarian gesture adding that it has affected many lives in a positive way.
Umar urged the management to continue to give his team the necessary cooperation for them to make the needed impact.
Earlier, chairman of the board of FMC Yola, Hajiya Habiba Umar in her goodwill message thanked the managers of the fund for a job well done.
While pouring encomiums for an excellent service to humanity, Umar charged the new leadership to strive harder for the benefit of humanity even as she recognized the excellent leadership of the Professor Awwal Abubakar.
