Residents of Taraba have decried the shortage of qualified doctors and the infrastructure deficit in general hospitals across the state.

Some of the residents said on Monday in Jalingo that the situation was affecting the quality of service delivery.

Mr Yerima Ato, a resident of Wukari town, particularly said that there was no qualified doctor stationed at the general hospital in Wukari.

Mr Ato, who alleged that doctors were being hired from other places to provide skeletal services at the general hospitals, noted that such arrangements were gravely affecting service delivery.

“To my knowledge, doctors are being hired from the Federal Medical Centre, Jalingo, to cover up for the shortage of doctors in the general hospitals.

“There was a time I was scheduled for surgery at the general hospital, but I had to wait for the doctors to come from the FMC. So, it’s the same doctors you find at the FMC that you find in the general hospitals,” he said

Hajara Thomas said that the situation was no different in general hospitals in Takum, Ussa, Gassol, Takum, Gashaka, and Bali, among other local government areas of the state.

She called on the state government to recruit more doctors to enable residents to access quality services at the general hospitals and primary healthcare centres.

On his part, a health expert, John Mayo, decried the infrastructure deficit in most of the hospitals.

Mr Mayo noted that the dilapidated condition of facilities at the public hospitals in the state was not motivating to medical workers.

He, however, commended Governor Agbu Kefas for the renovation of some general hospitals in the state. 

(NAN)