Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, has descried the deplorable condition of medical and infrastructural facilities at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, Sagamu, declaring that the hospital requires serious overhaul.
Abiodun, who also noted that the tertiary health centre had lost several accreditations due to its facility deficit, said his administration would quickly set up a team of consultants and medical staff to fashion out modalities on how the hospital could become functional again.
The governor spoke with newsmen on Sunday shortly after he paid a visit to the hospital.
Abiodun, accompanied by his wife, Bamidele, the Medical Director, Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta, Prof Semiu Musa-Olomu and the Ogun State Head of Service, Lanre Bisiriyu, inspected Morbidity Anatomy and Histopathology sections, Male Surgical Ward, Children’s Ward, Radiology Complex and other facilities during the visit.
The governor disclosed that his visit was informed by his meeting with sector heads in the state Ministry of Health and insisted that the OOUTH, Sagamu, needed urgent attention and serious infrastructural uplift in order to function optimally.
He added that as the first and only teaching hospital in Ogun, OOUTH’s deplorable condition was disheartening, saying Public-Private Partnership (PPP) approach would also be considered in his administration’s bid to turn around the fortune of the teaching hospital.
“This (OOUTH) being the first and only teaching hospital in this state and from the report that they gave me which was very disheartening, I thought I should come and see things for myself.
“I would set up a team to immediately begin how to look at the approach that would make this place be functional as it should be. I don’t see how this place can produce doctors that would be able to look after patients. I don’t see how they even look after patient with their current state.
“So, we have to go back to the drawing board. I understand that they have lost a lot of accreditations, which is not surprising based on what we see here. Most of the buildings that are here are buildings that were inherited from the old general hospital.
“This place is sub-standard; I am going to sit down and look at how best this place would start working perfectly. We also have to look at the PPP approach to ensure that all these are working.
“This hospital at a point in time was the best teaching hospital in this country and the Faculty of Medicine was number one in the country. But, today we lost accreditation and I have imagined that this is what should have been fundamental and primary to any administrator. We are going to look at how we get all these back before we think of anything,” Abiodun stated.