Allegations of extortion, low patronage; false, baseless – CMD Kogi Specialists Hospital

By Obansa Ibrahim, Lokoja

The management of Kogi State Specialist Hospital (KSSH)
has refuted the alleged extortion of the public with exorbitant medical charges from patients , saying the online publication was orchestrated by some miscreants who are hell-bent to rubbish the hospital.

According to the management, the malicious publication was purportedly authored by a faceless social media blogs who have deviated from the core journalism profession of investigation before publication of news item.

At a press conference held in Lokoja on Thursday, the Chief Medical Director of the hospital Professor Isah Adagiri said that in the last two years the management has not increase its medical charges, noting that the hospital was established to serve the people at affordable charges.

He lamented that some staff that were either dismissed or suspended for various offenses, ranging from fraudulent practices to outright stealing constitute themselves into a cog that has been causing problems in the hospital through false publication.

“In the last two years , we have not increase the charges of our services. We are here to serve the people and the state government has been supporting the hospital. Over one billion naira had been spent by the former governor Alhaji Yahaya Bello for the remodeling of the hospital and this commitment gave a facelift to the hospital” the CMD said.

Also speaking on the allegation that the hospital had suffered low patronage of patients, the CMD described the claim as untrue , saying the hospital is always busy and attending to numerous patients to seek for medical attentions.

“In fact our hospital is the only medical facility that has viable mortuary and it is very busy and well patronized. It is not a ghost hospital as erroneously and mischievously claimed by enemies of the hospital who have nothing to do and say other than pulling the hospital down” he stated

Reacting to claim that the management auctioned vehicles without due process, Professor Adagiri, stated that it was normal in any government establishment to auction unserviceable vehicles, noting that it was the state ministry of finanand not the hospital.