*vandals cart away patients files, other items
*LG says clinic since ordered to close down, relocate
By; ALEX UANGBAOJE, Kaduna
Residents of Tudun Munstri in Narayi Community of Chikun Local Government Area, Kaduna State, have expressed worries over the life of staff and patients of the Tuberculosis (TB) and Leprosy Clinic in the area.
The clinic which is completely dilapidated in and out with no single equipment and now threatened by erosion as a deep hole under the building, poses risk to the lives of people who come around there.
A visit to the facility shows that services are still actively being rendered there as eight TB patients were seen waiting to be attended to as at the time our team arrived there.
About 145 TB patients were registered at the facility between January to August 2022, most of whom are undergoing treatment, while eight were already captured for treatment in the month of September as at the time of this visit.
Community people who live around the facility are worried that the In-charge might be risking her life by coming there to work every day.
A resident who identified himself as Peter Ishaku, noted that, “the first time I saw the building from behind, I became afraid that someone could be coming here in the name of work.
“What if the building collapses and she dies, will government take responsibility for it? I am sure she doesn’t want to lose her job that’s why she is always there and if you see the calibre of people that visit this place for treatment you will be amazed.
“She is not only endangering her life and that of her colleagues, she is also endangering the lives of the patients that visit the place day-in, day-out”.
Another resident who doesn’t want his name mentioned, said, “this is the only thing you can find in our community, they don’t even care about it, not that they don’t know about it. If anything happen here now, that’s when you will understand what I am saying.
“Apart from the time bomb waiting to explode as a result of the erosion there, there are also big snakes around here that can even kill. My fear is even their lives.
“The woman is so passionate and committed to this work, that she does not care about her life”.
Mr Stephen Munchi, Community Head, Tundun Munstri, revealed that the situation of the clinic has been like that for over 10 years, but not as worse as it is presently.
“This place used to be very active and it booms a lot that they run on three shifts, but within the last 10 years, it kept going down from bad to worse. The building is gone everything inside has been vandalized.
“The community has written to the local government council, but no action from them. We even gave them a property they can use temporarily, up till now, we have not seen any action.
“Another major problem that led to the vandalism was because there was no security, even when we caught some people and handed them over to the authorities then, nothing was done about it”.
The In-charge of the Clinic, Chibi Gandu, said she has been working there for about eight years.
According to her, the facility was relatively okay when she took over as head of the clinic, but that the erosion threat behind the building had always been there eating up the building gradually.
According to her, the clinic is the first TB and Leprosy center in Kaduna State.
She said she kept reporting the dilapidated state of the facility to the community head and the local government, but no interventions were done until vandals started removing things one after the other and finally came in to cart away the remaining things including the patients files.
“We receive a lot of patients here and we have been treating them and God has been helping us and they are recovering.
Patients come from everywhere including outside Kaduna State.
“Because of the condition of the place, we don’t use any of the rooms, we only sit outside to attend to them. I have pleaded that even if it is a kiosk, they should provide for us outside here so we can move away from the building.
“We don’t only handle TB and Leprosy cases, we equally handle malaria cases, it also used to serve as Heart to Heart centre for HIV. We receive drugs on regular basis from the TB Centre even for malaria, even KADCHMA services are supposed to be provided here but because of the situation of the place, we are yet to start. We even used to take delivery here until things became worse.
“I and the ‘Sarki’ have been reaching out for intervention. At some point the community agreed to donate building materials for the repositioning of the facility, but till now am yet to see anything. What we are trying to do now is to write to churches to help us because people have been coming here and they are getting the results”. The in-charge explained.
When contacted, the Health Secretary of Chikun LGA, Bossan Amos said the authority is aware of the condition of the facility and have since asked the staff there to relocate their services to PHC, Narayi.
“The facility is shutdown, closed, no longer in existence, is not functional please.
“We ask her (the in-charge) to move out of the place, she doesn’t want to, is not supposed to be functional. We asked her to merge with PHC Narayi, she would be given an office there because of the condition of that place”.
On whether the PHC Narayi is suitable for handling diseases like TB and Leprosy cases because of the kinds of clients they are meant to carter for? the HS, said “for temporary measure because those ones are not active cases, there are two cases of the disease, if it is active, she can refer to a separate clinic but those ones that are coming for follow ups and to take there drugs and go, that we can allow in a separate isolated room in PHC Narayi.
“Not all kind of cases she would attend to, while the community and the government tries to fix the improvised uncompleted building that was given by the community that we can use. We are still pushing for funds to fix it”.
