The Chief Medical Director(CMD) of University’s College Hospital(UCH), Ibadan, Prof. Abiodun Otegbayo, on Tuesday said the teaching hospital requires nothing less than N100 billion to experience a complete turn around.
Otegbayo disclosed this at a press briefing to commemorate the 62nd anniversary of the hospital.
He said the amount the hospital requires to function at optimum level is humongous because the facilities at the teaching hospital had decayed and needed massive resuscitation.
He said: “To turn UCH around, we won’t need less than N100 billion naira, the hospital is overstretched and overwhelmed.
“We need the secondary tier of the hospital to be up and doing and it is in the purview of the state governments.
“Until the state governments wake up to their responsibilities and resuscitate the primary and secondary health care, our facilities and personnel will continue to be overstretched and overwhelmed.
“People naturally will go to a place where they will get the best care; our clinics are congested and there is no way UCH can accommodate all but we will continue to do our best.”
The CMD stated that within the short period of his assumption of office, all undue bureaucracies that inhibit effective running of the system and kill initiatives have been removed, adding that operations are now seamless from the management to the deaprtments and staff members.
Otegbayo further stated that unlike in the past, services were greatly improving at the hospital, noting that the clinics and other treatment centers in the hospital are now being made comfortable for patients and visitors alike.
He listed equipments, water, power supply, workers training and infrastructure as the top facilities the hospital is currently in dire need of, adding that funding has been a major challenge.
“It has been intriguing how we get money to run the hospital. We pay huge sums of money for the supply of electricity, buying diesel do our generators and yet we must meet the yearnings of our teeming patients,” Otegbayo said.
The CMD, however, said his administration have been able to raise a team of influential Nigerians to be on the Board of Trustees of a foundation named Oritamefa Health Foundation.
According to him, the foundation will be run by an indpendent body and it will be charged with the responsibility of raising funds for the provision of vital equipment needed to improve services and facilities in the hospital.
Otegbayo called on wealthy Nigerians, corporate organisations and non-governmental organisations to consider UCH as a point where their generosity can be extended to, saying “it is not possible for government to provide all the needed funds and infrastructure to adequately address the needs of the hospital.”
He mentioned some of the achievements of his administration since assumption of office to include: renovation of Otunba Tunwase Children Emergency Ward; donation of dialysis machine by Pastor Enoch Adeboye; construction and equipping Cash & Carry Pharmacy and commissioning of the UCH-RAD-AID Pictorial Archiving Commumication System(PACS) reporting room for trainung of Radiologists in West Africa amongst others.
The CMD also disclosed that the hospital will be giving awards to some individuals and corporate organisations in recognition of the contributions they have made to UCH.
