Naira Scarcity: FCTA Directs Hospitals to Adopt Alternative Payment Modes

By: Wisdom Acka

Following the nationwide cash crunch, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has deployed alternative means of payment by patients to ease hardship while trying to access health care service in its hospitals across the Territory.

Secretary, Health and Human Services Secretariat, FCTA, Dr. Abubakar Tafida, who made this disclosure to journalists on Wednesday in Abuja, stated that the move became necessary because the Administration was worried by the challenges faced by patients in making payments in the hospitals.

The Secretary mandated all Medical Directors of the FCT Administration’s hospitals to engage the service of multiple Point of Sale (PoS) operators in the various hospital as alternative means of payments for the medical bills.

He, however, warned that the Administration would not hesitate to sanction any medical official that refused to attend to patience and turn them back because of the current cash situation in the country.

Assuring FCT residents that the Administration was doing everything possible to ease their pains, Dr. Tafida explained that the situation was not just peculiar to the FCT but a national one, which would soon be over.