CHIEF Medical Director of University College Hospital (UCH), Professor Jesse Otegbayo, says the Federal Government’s rehabilitation of the hospital was a significant contribution to ensure a conducive environment for the hospital to render services to international standards.
Otegbayo, in his welcome address at the inauguration of the rehabilitated UCH, Ibadan, said over the years, most facilities at the hospital had become aged and had fallen into disrepair.
The remodeled, rehabilitated and restructured facilities by the office of the President on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) included the east, south/east, central, west and south-west blocks, as well as the installation of five new patients’ elevators and 400 solar-powered streetlights.
Others are the evacuation and piping of the hospital’s sewage line, refurbishing of over 100 toilets both in the clinics, wards and offices, and the provision of 670 hospital beds, mattresses, bedside lockers and chairs.
He declared: “Today’s commissioning is an escalation of the Federal Government’s deliberate policy to sustain the development of healthcare and to support the delivery of improved medical services for the sustainability of the premier hospital and for the benefit of Nigerians.”
The CMD declared the projects had aided the hospital to improve lives by increasing ease in delivery of health services, comfort for patients, improved security in the hospital, better working and job satisfaction and initiated a quality improvement culture for improved patient satisfaction and safety.
He, however, called for more infrastructural rehabilitation and medical equipment to move the hospital from the current tertiary to a quaternary hospital and also to be able to compete more favourably among hospitals of contemporary status in the world.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDG, Chief (Dr) Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, said the intervention was among the several undertaken by the SDG office across the country to show that President Muhammadu Buhari cares about the health of Nigerians and fulfill its electioneering promise in 2015.
According to her, among the teaching hospitals rehabilitated and restructured by the Federal Government through SDG Office are Murtala Mohammed Teaching Hospital, Kano, and the Adamawa Teaching Hospital that had shut down because of their deplorable state.
Also, the 13 nonfunctional lifts at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital were replaced with seven new ones as well as a pediatric building to the Federal Medical Centre, Ebute Meta
Orelope-Adefulire declared: “We are here under the same administration to provide good qualitative care and wellbeing to the people of Nigeria, especially in the south-western Nigeria and particularly Oyo State.
“So, we will continue to work with you to make work easier and to ensure that we achieve the theme of the SGDs, which includes good health and wellness to ensure that Nigerians are healthy. It is only when we are healthy that meaningful activities can be done.”
Senator representing Oyo Central Senatorial District, Teslim Folarin, in a remark, declared the need for amendment of laws to ensure proper funding and maintenance of health institutions across the country so that hospitals like UCH, Ibadan have a good maintenance culture.
Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, speaking through Mrs Olubamiwo Adeosun, the Secretary to the State Government, called for increased financial support for the hospital even as the state continues to collaborate with the hospital for the health of its teeming patients.
