Dr Mustapha Abubakar Yaro is the Medical Director of the National Ear Care Cntre Kaduna. He had his primary school education in Kaduna as well as secondary school at Rimi College Kaduna. Yaro then proceeded to College of Advanced Studies Zaria and was there between 1987 and 1988. He obtained a degree in medicine from ABU Zaria and did his National Youths Service Corps at Nigeria Navy School, Abeokuta Ogun state. He did his Residency training at Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital and qualified as a Fellow of West African College of Surgeons, emerging as the best graduating medical student in 2011.Yaro has worked with Katsina state government from 2000 rising to the rank of Director Hospital Services at the Katsina state Health Services Management Board. He was also the Medical Director at the General Hospital Katsina and Ingawa at various times. Yaro has worked as a member of various health-related committees set up by state and federal government. He is also a Fellow of the International College of Surgeons. Yaro was appointed Medical Director of the National Ear Care Centre, NECC, by President Muhammdu Buhari on August 2018.In an exclusive interview with ASHENEWS, Dr Yaro talks about how he has transformed the Centre; about allegation of funds misappropriation and more. EXCEPRTS
On your appointment, you promised service delivery and training. Let’s have an insight into how much you have so far achieved so far.
When I came here, I looked at the position of the Centre – the infrastructure, the service delivery model and so forth. First, theatre operations were carried out only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays even though emergencies could be taken any day. That was not tenable in view of many factors including the growing patient base. I therefore introduced Mondays to Fridays as theatre days – meaning that every day is a theatre day. This has increased the number of surgeries that we do. We also increased the number of days we run radiological services. The same applies to other departments.
We also tried to improve on some aspects of tests. Now, if you go to our labs, you will see that we have new laboratory equipment. Initially, we had analogue testing machines, which we have replaced with automated ones that run many tests within a short time. We have computerized our clinic services and our doctors no longer use paper but computers for diagnoses, etc. This has improved on service delivery, efficient record keeping and so forth. We have also computerized our revenue collection methods for proper record keeping of our accounts.
There were only two schools – School of Audiology and School of Post Basic ENT Nurses but we have created the School of Health Information Management System. We have already taken first set and they are about to write their exams. We created this school so that we can produce IT-compliant staff in conformity with the modern trend. We have also modernised our wards and provided everything necessary, including oxygen and other emergency drugs within the wards. We changed the beds to the most modern and renovated our amenity wards. Equipments in our theatre are now modern too. On the 15th of December, we will commence implant surgeries. We have invited the resource persons and technical partners from Egypt. This will be the first of its kind at this Centre. When this starts, people that have hearing impairment will get the implant and they will start hearing. These are a few of the services we have improved on since I assumed office as Managing Director at the Centre.
And training? …In terms of training, we have had two types – clinical and administrative training. One of our core mandates is research and training. We have resident doctors who are training to become consultant ENT surgeons. We have sponsored them to get trained. We sent one of our radiology technicians to India who is now in his second year. He will specialize in the technical aspect of interventional radiology. We have also sent one of our nursing staff to Kenya to specialize in Nursing Anesthesia. For other staff, during the 2018/2019, we sponsored about 100 staff to attend workshops at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria. Two week ago. We sponsored about 40. We have also sponsored individuals to various courses and training within the two years I assumed office. We have organized trainings for our security personnel on issues of handling fire extinguishers, etc.
Let’s peep into Research and Development
Yes, on research and development, we have published so many papers in both national and international journals. We have done a research on Diphtheria. This was propelled by the fact that last year, we recorded six deaths as a result of diphtheria. We conducted the research to look at the factors that came up with the rare but deadly disease. Currently, we are doing another research – we are screening new born babies to assess their hearing abilities. We want to see those that are born with hearing loss and what the causes are. We are conducting this research in collaboration with Kaduna state government at Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital. Various departments at the Centre have conducted one research or another which we usually present at our national and international conferences.
How do you get funding to work?
Our major funding is from the Federal government. The funding for capital projects in 2020 was impressive because we received almost about 80 per cent of our budget for capital projects, which is a good thing. The challenge that hospitals face is funding for overhead, which is the funding for running day-to-day activities within the hospital. That is the main challenges. The funding does not come every month. So, we rely on internally generated revenue from the revolving fund. However, in 2021 budget, the National Assembly has increased overhead for hospitals. So, the 2021 budget is finally passed and signed into law by Mr President, that challenge would be gone. The main challenge we have is what we call outsource. Government is supposed to outsource cleaning and security services. This means that we employ these services which should be funded by the Federal government and we then pay the service providers. But for the past two to three years, government has not paid. It means that we have to find a way of paying them from our revenue.
In spite of your promise to ensure transparency and accountability, there was a recent publication which pointed at you as embezzling funds. What is your reaction to that allegation?
I am sure those that published that allegation did not do their work well. Or, it was sponsored by mischief makers who are bent on tarnishing my image. I am not distracted and cannot be anyway. The unfortunate aspect of it is that the journalist (either sponsored) did not take their time to investigate the facts well. They did not care to hear our own side of the story. In fact, they never came here at all. I thought journalism is all about fairness, balance and objective. Before they published, they never came to ask us questions. When we saw the publication, we called one of them because there is a number we found on the website. The journalist told me that the petitioners said they did not need to hear from us and I asked if that was ethically good for any professional journalist to do. Well, to cut story short, they have published an apology. They have also confessed that they have discovered the allegations were false. But we must do more to ensure purveyors of falsehood do not continue with their business. The society won’t be good by allowing misleading information to continue to be peddled by traders of false.
Here at NECC, we have been running a transparent system in terms of accountability and award of contracts. We have a process of awarding contracts, which is guided by the Procurement Act. During the process, every contractor is present to see what happens. For the two years that I have been here, I have transparently awarded contracts which have properly been executed. No prospective contractor, including those who lose their bids ever complained. If there is any complaint, it is the contractor that should do that, not anyone who is not part of the process. But even if any other person or group of persons or organization would complain, his claims should be backed with evidence.
The House of Representatives Committee on Tertiary Institutions recently visited this Centre, led by Rep Paschal Obi. They saw the quality projects we have executed. Anyone who knows the National Ear Care Centre in the last three to four years will see that it is not the same now. He will see the transformation that has taken place. The structural development is superior compared to what obtained. More so, the revenue collection in the Centre is transparent because we have computerized our payment system. Our collection goes directly into our TSA account because our staffs do not handle cash. So, any fee that is collected is automatically transmitted into that account. I am not aware of the financial misappropriation allegation that was made in that publication against me. As far as I am concerned, I am doing my best and will not be distracted by such baseless publication.
