By Mohammed Lawal
Zaria – City College of Health Science and Technology (CCHST), Zaria, Kaduna State, has offered free medical treatment to over 1,200 patients in Zaria, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
The Provost of the college, Mr Sankyai Obadiah, made the disclosure on Monday while interacting with newsmen at the end of the exercise held at the college premises in Zaria.
He said the essence of the gesture was to extend a hand of fellowship to the neighboring communities, adding that it was part of the institution’s corporate social responsibilities.
“As a Health College, we want to give back to the society being the
host community what it had been doing to us, we want them to feel us
too.
“Considering the economic situation of the country, many people can’t
afford simple medication now, hence the decision to embark on this
exercise.
“People with different ailments came from far and near, and were adequately attended to, and to the glory of God, the exercise was peaceful and successful,” he said.
On allegation that the college had no accreditation to run its courses, Obadiah described such allegation as baseless, false and an attempt to tarnish the image of the institution.
He said the college had full statutory obligation to operate with the necessary approvals from the regulatory bodies.
According to him, the college had gotten necessary approvals from Kaduna State Ministry of Health, Corporate Affairs Commission and Kaduna State Primary Health care Agency.
He said it also got a letter of no objection to run as a monotechnic from National Board for Technical Education (NBTE).
The Rector explained that the institution also sought for and got approvals from other government regulatory bodies saddled with the responsibility of accreditation.
He listed the institutions as Community Health Practitioners Registration Board of Nigeria, Pharmacist Council of Nigeria, Environmental Health Officers Registration Council of Nigeria, Health Record Officers Registration Board of Nigeria, Optometrists’ and Dispensing Opticians Board of Nigeria and West Africa Health Examination Board.
The Registrar of the college, Alhaji Mustapha Aliyu-Galadimawa, advised other sister health institutions operating in the state especially in Zaria to be happy with the establishment of the College instead of trying to bring it down.
“This is because in less than two years of its establishment, it had been able to secure approvals to run health courses from different regulatory bodies.
“This is supposed to be a morale booster to other health institutions to brace up toward getting approvals and accreditation from the necessary regulatory bodies instead of fighting it,” he said.
He explained that the institution was established in May 2017, purposely to train middle level manpower in health professional allied courses.
Aliyu-Galadimawa, however, assured that processes were ongoing for facilitation of accreditation with two more boards between now and June.
“With this development, the institution currently has the highest number of accreditation among all the private health institutions in the state,” he said.
The Registrar said the college was rated as the best by the relevant regulatory bodies in terms of facilities to train middle level health professionals.
“Therefore, we are using this medium to debunk all false information being spread by our competitors that the college has no accreditation.
“This misinformation has been going on in the social media and also in circulation in the pages of newspapers with the intent of destroying its image. We want the public to ignore such false information,” he said.