There are mix reactions from the users and medical personnel of tertiary institutions in Cross River State over the effectiveness of their medical centres.

However, investigation showed that the Cross River State University of Technology (CRUTECH), and the University of Calabar (UNICAL) have all it takes to manage an institution’s clinic.

Some users of the clinics in the schools complained of negligence of duty which could be as a result of lack of manpower while others, most especially the students from the University of Calabar said the university medical centre has been effective in terms of manpower and otherwise.

Investigation also revealed that UNICAL, despite having all it takes in terms of manpower and emergencies, the outside structure does not befit a federal university medical centre.

On the other hand, CRUTECH has a good structure and a clean environment where one can get treated without being infected with other illnesses.

Speaking with The Guardian on the functionality and effectiveness of the institution’s clinic, Acting Director, Medical Services of CRUTECH, Dr. Kaiser Etta, said the medical centre is effective in terms of manpower and facilities, noting that emergency cases are always treated with urgency. He said that the relationship with medical personnel of the school and their patients has been cordial since inception.

According to him, “I think we have a very good operational system in this school medical clinic, a student is expected to have an ID Card and all the treatments are given free of charge, so we don’t have any problem with our system here.

“However when there is an emergency, we do not waste time to attend to the person in terms of asking for details of the person. For example, we had a case where a student was brought to the clinic at night; she was a student from the University of Calabar. I don’t know why she came here but we had to attend to her because she was bleeding. I saw it as a case that I have to act upon immediately and we rushed her to the theatre where she had an evacuation, it was later we had to register her properly.

“The issue is that I believe that medical personnel are effective in their work especially when it has to do with emergency cases because it can become very serious if not properly attended to. You have to be very careful and you most show concern. When it involves emergency we do not waste time, the doctor can ask all necessary questions after reviving the patience. We have treated arm robbers with bullet wounds here. They were brought in by the police.

“In terms of facilities we have a medical theater where we do operation for appendicitis, we have done operation for hernia, we have done knee amputations, stitching of accident wounds, we treat asthmatic attacks and all kinds of emergencies. But whatever involves a specialist, we invite them to see the patient.”

On his part, a non-teaching member of staff of CRUTECH, Mr. Ebu Emmanuel, blamed negligence of patients on the medical sector in the country describing it as porous.

He maintained, “What we are seeing here is just a tip of the larger picture. The larger picture is that the medical sector of the country is totally porous and if the whole of your hand is infected by leprosy one good finger will not make a meaning.

“What use is one finger that is considered good enough from the hand that has been affected by leprosy? In Nigeria medical world generally, the material, the structure, the management, the attitude, everything is at zero level. Even if we have the best facilities, which I mean material resources, the human resources are still missing.”

Stressing the need for change in attitude, Emmanuel said that punishment should be meted to medical personnel who fail in their duty.

In his words, “What I am saying in a nutshell is that we have a very long way to go in terms of the material factors, in terms of manpower, in terms of attitude. It takes an attitude for a very good lecturer to teach well, it takes a good attitude for a medical doctor to be a professional in his field. We must be zero in consciousness, zero on our ability, zero on our enabling law because there has to be an enabling law where punishments and penalties are applied to such negligence, I am sure everybody will sit up.