UGHELLI/Nigeria: The Delta State Government had assured of its commitment for grassroots health facilities development.
The assurance was given recently to the people of Agbara-Otor by the State Commissioner of Health, Dr. Mordi Ononye, during the inspection visit of to the ongoing hospital project in the community, where he of the early completion to enable them have access to affordable health care services as encapsulated in the Governor Okowa SMART Agenda.
Speaking on the essence of the visit, the Commissioner said: “We have gone round to access the state of readiness so that we begin to put in the equipment we need for the hospital to kickstart services and also advice ourselves on the other things we need to do to get here functional as soon as possible.”
Dr Ononye said that Governor Okowa decided to complete the hospital project which was long overdue in order to serve the health needs of the community and its environs and put it to immediate use as soon as possible.
He disclosed that the idea of the hospital was conceived during the tail end of the Chief Ibori’s administration while the foundation was laid during the Dr Uduaghan’s administration over 10 years ago and emphasized the need to complete the project and put it into use as soon as possible.
The commissioner, who expressed happiness that the new facility was bigger than the Ekpan General Hospital with much space, commended the work done so far.
“We have seen the drive way, very solid work and there is a lot of space to do lot of things and we will not allow this hospital to lay waste and therefore we must put it into immediate use,” he said.
Addressing the representative of the leadership of the community after his inspection of the facility, Dr Ononye said “We have to do some adjustments to make the place much more contemporary. We have pointed out to the contractor those things that must be done because what we want is that even though the structure is almost fully completed, there are still some things to be done because we want to commission a facility that meets with contemporary standards.”
“We will be back in 10 days time to access the progress of work and make sure the things we pointed out to the contractor are addressed because we cannot move in the equipment until those things are done in order not to damage the equipment.”
The contractor handling the project, Mr John Idogun, who conducted the commissioner and his team round the project site, assured of early completion and said it would be in line with the bills of quantity (BOQ) as he has taken note of the areas pointed out by the commissioner.
On his part, Chief London Okuwhere, Acting President-General, Agbara-Otor Kingdom, assured the commissioner that his community would take ownership of the hospital project and also make sure the infrastructure and personnel were protected even as he promised that a conducive environment would be provided for the hospital to thrive.
Areas inspected included the mortuary, theatres, maternity, male and female/children wards, out-patients department comprising the consulting rooms, accident and emergency area.
Present during the visit were the Director, Hospital Services, Hospital Management Board, Dr Fumilayo Omaraka, Director, Planning Research and Statistics, Ministry of Health, Dr Ejiro Ogheneaga, and representative of the community which include Chief Oscar Ibru among others.
