The Chief Medical Director of University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan, Professor Jesse Otegbayo, Wednesday, said the hospital requires about N50 billion intervention fund to reclaim its glory as a leading tertiary health institution.
Prof Otegbayo, who stated this during the visit of the House Committee on Health in fulfillment of its oversight duties to the hospital, stressed that the fund would make UCH befitting of being described as a medical tourism hub in the country.
The CMD pointed out that gross infrastructural decay occasioned by over-stressed facilities, age and poor economy were the challenges facing the hospital.
“You need to look at the expanse of land, the infrastructure, the buildings, the level of personnel and the tools required. I would move for an estimate of about N50 billion for a start for us to be able to bring this hospital back on its feet,” he said.
Prof Otegbayo stressed, “We need the special intervention fund because some of the facilities are as old as 63 years. The turning of sod for many of the buildings here was in 1953 only that the hospital came into service in 1957. Like any other infrastructure, the older the weaknesses that set in; so you need more money and other interventions to solve the problems.
“All our underground cables that had been laid as far back as 1953 and the power cables that were laid 1952 are breaking down. When we pump water here, you find out that the distribution is poor. We also require the special intervention fund to replace our ageing equipment.”
The House Committee in their observation after the assessment tour of the facilities in the hospital unanimously agreed that the hospital required an urgent special financial intervention to rescue it from decay.
Chairman of the House Committee on Health, Prof Pascal Chigozie, charged the hospital management to device a means of creatively face-lifting the hospital.
