From Laide Raheem, Abeokuta
Ogun State governor, Dapo Abiodun, has charged the new Governing Council of the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH) Sagamu, to be innovative, adaptive and reposition the tertiary health institution.
Abiodun, who gave this charge, on Monday, at the inauguration of the Council, at the Exco Chamber of the Governor’s Office, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, equally tasked them to ensure a sustainable legacy of efficiency and effectiveness that will continue to make the hospital a leader among teaching hospitals in the country.
He noted that the inauguration of the Council members was coming at a crucial time in the history of medicare in the world, particularly with the challenges of COVID-19, HIV/AIDS, Ebola and other ailments, urging them to ensure the hospital lead in the provision of solutions to these ailments.
“I expect you to be innovative and adaptive. In fact, you may have to make bricks without straws. You may have to think not just outside the box, but in fact without the box. We expect to see new ways of doing things and ensure a sustainable legacy of efficiency and effectiveness that will continue to make OOUTH a leader, that it should be and it is, amongst Teaching Hospitals in Nigeria and outside our shores.
“OOUTH should support our hub-and-spoke healthcare policy that puts Primary Healthcare at the kernel and OOUTH as the Apex (Tertiary) state-owned healthcare facility / institution. It is now your job to ensure that OOUTH will henceforth produce the quality of medical professionals that will be the signpost of Ogun State just like our forbears in medical actice have done”, the governor stated.
While saying that the hospital was not just an institution of higher learning but also a research, medical training and healthcare facility, Abiodun restated that all educational institutions in the state will receive due attention from his administration, stressing “OOUTH will continue to receive a special attention because of its combined responsibilities”.
The governor, who said the 12-member Governing Council has been carefully selected because of members’ diverse wealth of experience, expertise and wisdom, further charged them to appreciate the enormity of their assignment and ensure that OOUTH live and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with her contemporaries across the globe.