REMARKS BY THE CHIEF MEDICAL DIRECTOR, PROFESSOR JESSE ABIODUN OTEGBAYO AT THE COMMISSIONING OF THE RENOVATED AND RE-EQUIPPED INTENSIVE CARE UNIT ON MONDAY, 16TH DECEMBER, 2019.
My focus as the Chief Medical Director of the University College Hospital, Ibadan is to improve on the life of this great institution. The administration is reaching out to wealthy Nigerians to help in funding our major infrastructure and also intervene to supplement government funding.
However, we have not folded our arms waiting for mana to fall from heaven. We have judiciously utilized the available resources for the lifting of standards of care and services in general. We are not oblivious of the fact that the country looks up to us to provide leadership in the health sector, as the Hospital of last resort.
This has propelled us to come up with the renovation and re-equipping the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital. Often times, there are cases of needless deaths. It saddens my heart when patients that should be given First Class treatment could not get it because of a lack of basic equipment that is taken for granted in hospitals of equal status outside the country.
The equipment we are commissioning today include :
1. Seven mechanical Turbo Power ventilators,
2. Six multi-channel invasive monitors,
3. One central monitor,
4. Four syringe pumps
5. Four infusion pumps
6. Six SAM-14 suction pumps
7. Six electric beds
8. Six air mattresses
9. Two crash carts.
We did a complete renovation of the right wing of the ICU which has not been used in about 36 months. This involved rewiring, repainting, repair, and installation of 7 air conditioners, overhauling of the plumbing system and a complete change of the upholstery.
All of these cost about N127million which we pooled together from our Internally Generated Revenue. We got the equipment from the General Electrics (GE), renowned for first class medical equipment.
With these facilities now in place, I can assure Nigerians that the UCH is poised for better care for our critically ill patients. We can be sure of near-zero death cases henceforth due to lack of equipment.
We have the human resources. We are training and retraining them. At the same time, we are investing in developing our facilities to maximize the investment in human resources. I will say with all sense of responsibility that this new ICU ranks the best among public health institutions in Nigeria.
You are therefore welcome to a new world in the Hospital. This is another of the many upgrading of services and facilities that this administration has planned to do. We are determined to improve on staff welfare and patients’ comfort.
Thank you very much.