The National Assembly Service Commission NASC aside providing emergency first aid service at the commission by extension rendered clinical services at the National Assembly.
This arrangement was in existence before the advent of the current leadership under the management of Engr Ahmed Kadi Amshi FNSE and his commissioners with inadequate staffers to man the clinical services.
Having identified the teething problems and realized the implications, particularly in the area of providing health services to staff , legislators and by extension official visitors to the National Assembly Service Commission NASC and the National Assembly, it became imperative to rejig and re-equip the clinic with a view to providing both emergency and by extension other health services.
Aside rendering clinical and skeletal service to the National Assembly community, lawmakers and by extension legal visitors to the Assembly, the desire to provide necessary equipment to the clinic became imperative.
For a robust clinical services and provision of basic health needs, the commission aside providing through engagement of more health personnel , also expanded its period of services to ensure adequate attention to staffers of the commission.
The Amshi led commission having discovered that the first aid and clinical services could not sustain the activities of the commission and the assembly, devised a means of augmenting a more robust health system for staffers of the National Assembly.
This led to the confirmation of out source health workers known as "Locum " that had been in the service for years into a permanent and regular staff along with others , a decision that wss hailed to guarantee provision of adequate health facilities.
Envisaging more demands for health care facilities and the growing nature of the commission and National Assembly, aside confirmation of some health workers on "Locum" status , concerted efforts was designed to regularise the services of the health department of the Assembly to a normal hospital, which recently led to a full fledged all round the day service been rendered by the health department of the National Assembly.
What it means is that the National Assembly clinic is running a full shift like a normal clinic or hospital to attend to both the emergency health needs and by extension those needing referrals on a daily basis , away from the previous system of closing like the normal civil servants.
The extension of the service from the normal working hours of 8am - 4pm to round the clock, was a fall out of confirmation of temporary staff that had been underutilized and the growing need of providing more health services both to the staff, lawmakers and the visiting public.
Twenty five years down the line , the NASC expected the movement from a mere clinical services to a full fledged hospital that will gradually lead to building a hospital for the National Assembly, to allow not only staff of the commission and the assembly, but by extension federal lawmakers and their families, legislative aides and even the national assembly service commission's commissioners among many other health facilities and emergencies.
The laudable decision of expanding the service of the health department from working hours to 24 hours as obtainable in public hospitals, will reduce to the barest minimum the incidence and occasion of not only referrals , but untreated ailments frequently reported by staffers , both during working hours, and weekends.
The long over due provision and decisions with regards to the provision of quality health services and care for staffers of the National Assembly has been overtaken by seamless and well thought out foresight of the National Assembly Service Commission NASC under the leadership of Engr Ahmed Kadi Amshi FNSE and his commissioners, to guarantee the health status of members of staff and enhance performance on the job and productivity.
This decision when sustained will also douse the incidences of unattended health emergencies and deaths owing to inadequate equipment and personel to carry out required health services.
For the commission, a step forward had been achieved not only to safeguard the welfare of staffers alone , but the health status so as to continue to render needful service to the commission and the country at large.
The people oriented decisions when sustained will not only improve the manpower and work ethics, but encourage workers into putting in their maximum effort to ensure results.
With the slogan a healthy nation is wealthy nation, no doubt the proactive decisions to rejig the provision of health services by initially providing more hands, extension of service and equipment, will have a multiplier effects on the commission and National Assembly.
ABUBAKAR YUSUF Writes on [email protected]
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