Ogun General Hospital in need of ‘rescue’

Ibiade General Hospital, situated at Ibiade in Ogun Waterside Local Government Area of Ogun State was established on the 18th of May, 1960 to provide healthcare services to patients in Ogun Waterside Local Government Area and its environs. Today, the hospital betrays any semblance of a life- saving medical facility as it is currently being  […]

Ibiade General Hospital, situated at Ibiade in Ogun Waterside Local Government Area of Ogun State was established on the 18th of May, 1960 to provide healthcare services to patients in Ogun Waterside Local Government Area and its environs. Today, the hospital betrays any semblance of a life- saving medical facility as it is currently being  overtaken by weeds and confronted with infrastructural challenges.
EkoTrust reports that the hospital is in dire need of help by good Samaritans.
From the main gate of the hospital, one is greeted  by  an array of weather-beaten structures surrounded by thick weeds which do not portray the edifice as a life-saving one. The corroded gate of the hospital is manned by under- fed security personnel,while the doors and window glasses of the wards are mostly broken and the wall paints have badly faded.
Some of the buildings of the staff quarters of the hospital are dilapidated, while others are overtaken by overgrown weeds ,rodents  and much ready to provide habitat for dangerous creatures.
The hospital  lacks functional power generating set to power its equipment,according to a source,who also said, “The laundry machine of the hospital has been lying fallow for over two decades as a result of lack of effective power generating set.”
Our correspondent  reports  that  its ambulance  has been grounded, which was corroborated  by a close source, who said the ambulance  needs new tyres, battery and water pump to be functional.
“The ambulance was presented to the hospital by a former member of House of Representatives,  Abiodun Abudu-Balogun, it needs four tyres, battery and water pump to be on the road. The management of the hospital would have repaired it but we can’t do that without approval from government and government has not given us the nod to repair it,” a source told our correspondent.
Investigation by our correspondent revealed that the 56- year- old hospital was ravaged by rainstorm  last July, which  damaged some parts of the facilities in the hospital  such as the X-ray, out-patient, theatre, store, maternity and consulting rooms as well as the staff quarters.
When our correspondent asked the source how much it will cost the government to repair the facilities destroyed by the rainstorm, the source said, “The facilities destroyed by  the rainstorm are the heart of this hospital, so we have done our estimation and we discovered that it will cost Ogun State government less than two million naira to repair those facilities.”
The source added that the hospital is short of manpower.
 “We presently have six nurses and two doctors in the whole hospital. The major problem in this hospital includes lack of sufficient nurses, only one nurse in each shift takes care of the male ward, maternity ward and the Out Patient Department (OPD). We also have poor sanitary facilities with pit toilets, and lack of running water. The hospital suffers from epileptic power supply and the physical outlook and buildings need refurbishing, painting and general facelift to make it conducive for patients and staff. The staff quarters should also be renovated,” the source said.
Meanwhile, the host community and patients of the hospital have lamented the deplorable state of the secondary health institution.
A former president of Committee Of Social Club Ibiade (COSCI),  Otunba Olaitan Obisanya, said the state government needs to act fast in order to protect the hospital from total collapse.
“Ibiade General Hospital was built by late Chief Obafemi Awolowo over five decades ago. The hospital is facing many challenges, for example inadequate staff. But on July 10, 2015 , there was a rainstorm that damaged some parts of the hospital and there was no response from government in terms of repair of the affected parts of the hospital since then.
“I want to use this opportunity to appeal to government to come to our aid. The commissioner and his entourage have visited the hospital but we are yet to see any positive response from government since their visit.
The rainy season is around the corner, so the best thing to do before rain destroys the remaining equipment in the hospital is to repair the affected facilities,” Otunba Obisanya said.
A community leader, Mr Ayodele Rufai urged the people of the area to unite and chart a course for the renovation of the hospital.
He said, “We should not see this hospital as a property of Ibiade community, we should see it as a property of the entire people of Ogun Waterside Local Government, that is when we can safeguard it.”
Mr Sesan Muhammed, a trader, lamented the state of the infrastructure in the hospital,saying: “If the roof of the parts of the hospital that was destroyed by rainstorm is not repaired before rainy season, it will cost government more money to renovate the hospital because many equipment would be destroyed by rain.”
 He added that the staff of the hospital are trying their best and urged government to complement their efforts by the making environment conducive for them.
A youth leader in the community, Mr Yomi Ogunde, narrated his experience when  his son was in the hospital to undergo surgery. “The theatre of the hospital is nothing to write home about and thus not conducive for patients. I once took my son to the hospital for operation. Imagine, I was looking directly at the sky while in the theatre . And I started praying to God that rain should not fall that day, because if it rains, the operation won’t be successful,” he said.
Efforts to speak with the  Medical Director of the hospital ,Dr. Sayo Idowu  were not successful as he was not   around  when our correspondent visited the hospital and he refused to grant telephone interview when our correspondent called him.
In a telephone chat with our correspondent, Ogun State Commissioner for Health, Dr Tunde Ipaye , explained that  the state government is committed to giving  the hospital a facelift .
Dr Ipaye said the state Ministry of Health would have fixed the hospital if not for the financial problem in the country.
“You are aware of the financial problem in the country, if not for that, the hospital would have been renovated. Initially, we were planning for massive renovation of the hospital, but what we can do now is that we would just do the renovation in phases because the huge money we were expecting is not forthcoming and the hospital doesn’t have the Internal Generated Revenue that we can use,” the commissioner said.
He spoke on the issue of shortage of staff, saying  the issue of shortage of staff was just emotional.
“The hospital has about eight nurses and they do average of one delivery per day. When I visited the hospital they complained about shortage of staff and I told them that if  we give them another doctor now, it would have resulted into redundancy. The doctor will just go to the hospital and attend to 20 patients per day, whereas their contemporaries in Abeokuta are attending to 100 patients per one doctor in a day. l have discussed with them and I told them that if they can show evidence of improvement in productivity, we will second more staff to the hospital,” he said.
He added that the problem with the ambulance of the hospital was a management problem, he said, “The ambulance had a problem with water pump, the water pump was sold at N9,500 and the hospital had more than N500,000 in its account. It is a management problem. In fact , I have given the medical director of the hospital a query. The director said they need a brand new ambulance and i told him that if this ambulance has a water pump problem and you cannot fix it, if i give you a brand new ambulance  and there was a tyre problem you will still leave it to rotten.”
He further noted that the management of the hospital doesn’t need the approval of the state government to repair the ambulance.
“Do they come to Abeokuta before they spent N100, 000 on diesel? ask them how much they are spending in a month and how many times they have come to Abeokuta to get approval for that. If they need Abeokuta to approve the repair of the ambulance, have they written to Abeokuta?” he said.