By Kemi Olatunde
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A Teaching Hospital for the training of medical students of the University of Medical Sciences, Ondo has taken off, The Hope has gathered.

Commissioner for Health, Dr. Wahab Adegbenro disclosed this while speaking with The Hope in Akure.

According to him, personnel needed for the teaching hospital had been interviewed and deployed to the teaching hospital while facilities which form the nucleus of the hospital complex have been put in place.

The various facilities include the Medical Village which is made up of the Trauma Centre, Kidney Care Centre, Mother and Child hospital and the State Specialist Hospitals both in Akure and Ondo, will all take care of the training needs of students of the Medical University.

Speaking further, he stated that the  State Governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu  has approved the sum of N120 million for the take off grant of the University of Medical Science Teaching Hospital and added that measures are being put in place to ensure that it functions effectively.

He stated that the teaching hospital will not only provide the training need of students but also tertiary healthcare services to the people of the state.

His words: “There were some issues when we came on board. There was the need to set up a Teaching Hospital because this state has a medical university and we now have medical students at 400Level and they obviously need a teaching hospital for training.

That was why the government quickly established the Medical Science Teaching Hospital which is a multi campus set up. That is, we have some facilities in Ondo, we have some in Akure as well,” he said.

Adegbenro noted that residents of Akure with a teeming population will benefit more from the Teaching Hospital. “Apart from enjoying what we know as secondary healthcare, they will now be enjoying tertiary healthcare. We would have a lot of lecturers, consultants, professors who will do a lot of things more than what we used to have at that place.”

Reacting to protest in some quarters about the development, he said government would not remove the structures from Akure and “that is why we said the name of the teaching hospital is University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital Complex.

I don’t think there should be any problem. Also, as part of the activities of the government, we have moved the School of Nursing and School of Midwifery to the university and the nurses who graduate there will have degrees and would no longer be termed staff nurse, staff midwives. They would graduate with BSc nursing certificate”, he added.

Speaking extensively on the Contributory Health Scheme, the commissioner noted that it will take off by February .

“We are hoping that towards January ending or February we should be able to start the scheme.”

He explained that the governor has set aside fund to take care of those in the vulnerable group. That is the pregnant women, under five children and the physically and mentally challenged.

Commenting on the increased number of Mother and Child hospitals in the state, he hinted that there are moves to scale up the standard of facilities to be used in order to enable them function as mono specialist centres.

He said: “We have one in Ikare, that is at state specialist hospital, Ikare; then we have one in Owo, also at General Hospital, Owo, for the northern senatorial zone.

“The facilities are existing there but they would now have special sections that take care of these two groups of people: the pregnant women and under five children.

“Then to the south, we have three because of the peculiarity of that environment. The General Hospital, Ore is going to serve as a mother and child hospital. The State Specialist Hospital, Okitipupa will also serve as one, then the General Hospital, Igbokoda, towards the riverine area, will also have one.

“In short, we would now have about seven of them in place, and Mr Governor has also made provisions for the running of these centres. “