Professor Tahir Chubadu’s innovation changed the narratives of the newly established National Orthopaedic Hospital in Taraba state

Professor Tahir Chubadu’s innovation changed the narratives of the newly established National Orthopaedic Hospital in Taraba state

By Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo 

Professor Tahir Chubadu is the pioneer Chief Medical Doctor of the newly established National Orthopaedic Hospital in Jalingo, Andrew Ojih in this piece examined his hard work and commitment within few years of establishing the Hospital that changed its narratives. 

The administration of late President Muhammed Buhari established the National Orthopaedic Hospital Jalingo  in  2022 to provide orthopedic healthcare services to the people of Taraba State and the Northeast region.

The establishment of the National Orthopedic Hospital Jalingo, (NOHJ) by the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Health is one of the ministry’s responsibilities to provide citizens with better and good Orthopedic health care delivery.

The appointment of Prof. Chubado Tahir as the pioneer Chief Medical Director ( CMD) of the new  Hospital  in 2023 marked the presence of the first National Orthopedic Hospital in the Northeast Zone.

Tahir is a surgeon, and expert who expertise and specialization in Anesthetic and Burns Injuries with years of experience in the fields of medicine and medical administration.

When the Hospital was established,  the Federal Ministry of Health  with the Taraba State Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to fully take over the Hospital. 

The Hospital which was established in 2023  started with virtually no infrastructure on its temporary site that   was a former drug rehabilitation center in Jalingo. 

When the management team resumed duty, the temporary site provided by the Taraba state government was a place with “no structures” in the context of a hospital and required significant restructuring to create necessary spaces like an emergency unit and doctor’s rooms among others. 

But when Chubadu assumed office, he established that  the federal government mandated him to make the hospital a world class orthopaedic  facility that would serve the people  of  the North-east region. 

Chubadu, while speaking during an interview with selected journalists in Jalingo, hinted that he had the dream of transforming the hospital to compete globally.

The pioneer Medical Director noted that lack of funding remains the major deficiency hampering the smooth running of the hospital established two years ago.

 Prof. Tahir added that the facility established since 2023 lack adequate funding to function maximally.

According to the Medical Practitioner, the challenges that confronts any organization from smooth operation especially when starting from the scratch are enormous saying, if you are starting a place from the scratch, virtually every thing is a challenge.

He added that the management of the hospital under his watch has surmounted some challenges and also, provided some basic equipments to run the hospital.

 Emphasizing that lack of adequate funding is the major challenge, the MD said the Laboratory and Radiology departments need to be equipped, including provision of staff offices, among others.

He added that presently, NOH in the State has a 30 bed capacity Ward which he noted was supposed to be greater if adequate fund was made available.

“National Orthopaedic Hospital is being managed at a temporary site here within the premises of the State Specialist Hospital, donated by the state government”,

 On the staff strength of the hospital the MD disclosed that after being appointed as the acting Medical Director, there was insufficient number of workers to meet the demands of the hospital.

He added that the management had to get people as secondments from sister institutions who served as staff of the hospital.

“We got secondments from the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jalingo, University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital in Bornu State, and that of Adamawa and Gombe states”,

“All the MDs and CMDs were kind enough to allow some of their staff to come and assist us in starting the place”,

“There were no take off grants but we were lucky to have the 2023 budget”,

“At the beginning, I didn’t have an office, I will just come and move round, leaving the little place for the few staff especially those at the Accounts section”, he said.

Read Also: Yobe Local Government Service Commission trained treasurers on…

“The management of the Taraba State National Orthopedic Hospital (NOH), Jalingo were able to get to where we are today through the collaboration of the few number of staff we have.

“We swung into action by restructuring some of ofthe dilapidated structures, merge some rooms to create an emergency space because we needed larger apartments in the hospital”

“We also had to do some extensions, we created a Doctor’s room because, a Doctor on call will need a place to sleep because of emergency cases”,

“These achievements of ours greatly improved our services and significantly enhanced our operations for healthcare delivery services of the hospital”, he added.

Cases handled by the Hospital as stated by the MD were; Diseases of the bones, joints, spine and fractures.

“In addition to that, we also manage cases of plastic and caustic surgery, complications of burns, chronic wounds and deformities”,

“The Permanent site has been provided but we need to secure the land with the help of perimeter fencing and quickly start constructions there”, he stated.

The hospital under Tahir signed an agreement with Police Health Maintenance Limited (PHML) to provide services for police officers and their families, ensuring a steady stream of patients and a structured payment system. 

The Hospital since starting surgical operations, the hospital has an average of thirty major surgeries monthly, has attended to over three thousand cases in the General Outpatient Department (GOPD), and often reports 100% bed occupancy, indicating high demand for its services.

Various health experts  have recognized Professor Tahir impact, which is said to have elevated the standard of the National Orthopedic Hospital and improved healthcare delivery in Taraba state.

They agued that with Tahir has set a bench mark for others to emulate his leadership style and desire to make the newly established hospital world class. 

They believed that Tahir’s achievements goes beyond the decongesting water, they  described him as a man of proven integrity, who has made the hospital and indeed entire health sector proud.

According to them, there is no denying the fact that professor Tahir is a rare breed health professional who’s accounts of modern Orthopedic evolution would not be complete without ample recognition of the roles of his selfless quality.

They described him as over-bearing and brooks no criticism, but then, any leader aspiring to achieve success and push through his vision of an Utopian achievement for his people cannot but be over-bearing, or else he would not achieve success at the end of the day. 

They maintained that this scorecard is an indication that Professor Tahir leadership has done credibly well for Tarabans and indeed means business to change fortunes of the National Orthopedic Hospital respectively.