President Jonathan’s village hospital inches under FG control
A cottage hospital in President Goodluck Jonathan’s hometown of Otuoke is set to come under federal government control once a committee finishes a memorandum of understanding for its takeover. The 40-bed Otuoke Cottage Hospital will become an outreach centre for Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, once the committee finishes its assessment in as little as two […]
A cottage hospital in President Goodluck Jonathan’s hometown of Otuoke is set to come under federal government control once a committee finishes a memorandum of understanding for its takeover.The 40-bed Otuoke Cottage Hospital will become an outreach centre for Federal Medical Centre, Yenagoa, once the committee finishes its assessment in as little as two weeks.
Built by Bayelsa state government, the hospital was opened last June by President Jonathan and has received assistance through the Office of the Special Assistant on Millennium Development Goals.
Health minister Onyebuchi, who inaugurated the committee in Abuja, said Otuoke Cottage Hospital was “modern but there is need to look at how to sustain it.”
Acquisition
Both Bayelsa and federal government agree for Otuoke Cottage Hospital to come under federal control in line with a policy that mandates all 56 federal government hospitals to acquire at least three outreach centres each.
The committee, headed by the federal ministry’s director of hospital services Dr Patience Osinubi, will assess facilities at Otuoke Cottage, determine how it should link with FMC-Yenagoa and draft a memo for its takeover.
The hospital’s acting medical director, Dr Tabowei Benjamin, told Daily Trust its x-ray, generators and scan machines were damaged in flooding in 2012.
“With the acquisition, it will add a teaching focus for doctors, pharmacists, nurses…and an outreach where medical students will go to learn,” he said.