10 hospital staff dismissed for stealing blood in Nasarawa State

The Management of Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital, Lafia, Nasarawa State, says it has dismissed 10 of its staff over financial misconduct, sabotage and selling blood meant for patients.

Dr Hassan Ikrama, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital said, “some of them were engaging in stealing of blood from blood bank and selling same to private hospitals and diverting money meant for the hospital. Some are using the facilities of the hospital to carry out investigation in the laboratory and put the money for the charges in their private pockets”.

He noted that all the dismissed staff were investigated and found culpable by a committee that looked into the matter. Ikrama said that when he was appointed as the CMD, he discovered many leakages in the finances of the facility which needed to be blocked.

“Instead of the internally generated revenue of the hospital to improve, individuals were busy diverting it for personal use, as a result, services were going down on daily basis.
The hospital prior to my coming was lacking so many machines, had only one theatre, only 200 beds for admission, one clinic, insufficient offices for doctors.
“That was why most patients were being referred to either Jos, Federal Medical Centre Keffi or National Hospital Abuja due to lack of machines and space at the hospital,” the CMD said.

Ikrama, however, said that the hospital management had taken on the challenges and were able to increase the numbers of theatres to three, clinics to eight, scanning machine from one to eight.

“Others initiatives to reposition the hospital include provision of 200 additional beds, renovation of wards, toilets among others.” He added that more technical and other specialists have been employed to strengthen services to patients patronising the facility daily.