Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
Management of University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, has said the teaching hospital did not receive N118 million support for partnership on testing for COVID-19 from the Oyo State Government as widely reported in the media.
Public Relations Officer of the hospital, Toye Akinrinlola, made the clarification, yesterday in a statement he posted on the Facebook wall of the hospital.
Commissioner for Finance, Akinola Ojo, had, on Tuesday, while briefing the newsmen at the Governor’s Office, Agodi, Ibadan, said the state had spent N2.8 billion (N2,779,000,000) on the effort to contain the COVID-19 pandemic in the state, out of which N118 million was given to provide support for the UCH, that has been supporting the government in testing COVID-19 patients.
The commissioner also said the state has approved N15,000 per health worker as hazard allowance, adding that the allowance would be paid from March 2020.
But the management of UCH, in the statement, said the Chief Medical Director, Abiodun Otegbayo, is a member of Oyo State COVID-19 task force and should have known if the money was given to the institution outside the 250 pieces of the personal protective equipment (PPE) given to the hospital by the state government.
“The attention of the management of UCH has been drawn to the content of a press release from the Oyo State Government that N118 million was given to the hospital to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. The press release quoted the Commissioner for Finance, Akinola Ojo, as saying the said amount was released to UCH.
“We contacted some officials of Oyo State for clarification on this, but it seems there is a misunderstanding in the difference between the College of Medicine of the University of Ibadan and the UCH. It, therefore, behoves the UCH management to put the record straight.
“We hereby state emphatically that UCH did not and has not received any monetary donation from the Oyo State Government.”