Abuja residents commend FCT minister over FHSS
Residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have again commended the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Muhammad Bello, on the efforts and improvement of Federal Health Service Scheme (FHSS) programme.
The residents noted that contrary to the wrong implementation of Federal Government programmes in the past, which the present FCT administration has changed the narratives as residents pay little or nothing to gain access to health facilities and medications.
A resident, who spoke to The Abuja Times, Mr. Buba Ahmed, observed that he heard good things about the scheme and decided to give it a try and also confirmed that it is true.
Asked what his findings were, he said: ”Wallahi, this scheme is very good. They said it will take care of me, my wife and my children, that when I visit government hospital, I’ll pay almost next to nothing, government will take care of most expenses.
”After listening to the officials, I concluded that it was a good thing to have such in Nigeria. It is actually a place that I can spend very little on proper medical treatment, I was even given numbers of health management organizations (HMOs) to call which I did and in turn the HMOs gave me numbers of registered patients to call.
”What the patients told me blew my mind. One told me of how government virtually paid the bills for a major operation which his wife had, and so saved her life. Wallahi, my brother, this scheme is very good.
May Allah continue to bless FCT Minister, Muhammad Musa Bello, for this scheme. He will live long. He has taken financial pains off our backs.”
Further checks by The Abuja Times showed that the benefits of the scheme are second to none in the country.
The programme, possesses amazing out-patient care, including necessary consumables equivalent to, or perhaps even above, National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) Standard Treatment Guidelines.
It has a full dosage of prescribed drugs, pharmaceutical care and diagnostic tests as contained in the National Essential Drugs list and Diagnostic Test Lists or NHIS Drugs List and NHIS Diagnostic Test Lists.
The scheme takes care of surgeries and surgical procedures, all procedures that cannot be handled at the primary level, such as appendectomy, hysterectomy and others.
It was discovered that FHSS accommodates maternity (ante-natal, delivery and post-natal) care for four pregnancies ending in live births for every insured enrollee in the formal sector programme.
Additional care also, if any still-births. The FHSS covers all live births during the post-natal period of 12 weeks from the date of delivery while all premature babies are eligible also for 12 weeks from the date of delivery.
There are even special arrangements for treatment of registered enrollees who take ill while visiting locations outside the nation’s capital.
In FCTA-owned hospitals, dedicated officials are on hand to serve patients with FHSS cards with deserved promptness. This has to be so because the FCT Minister has prioritized the health of residents.
Idu Jude, Abuja
