The Abia State Government has said it was going to rehabilitate three General Hospitals, one in each of the three senatorial zones of the state in the next 60 days.
This was disclosed by the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. (Mrs) Ngozi Okoronkwo at the Aba Cottage Hospital, World Bank Housing Estate, Abayi, during an inspection visit to health facilities in the city, The Sun reports.
Dr Okoronkwo lamented the poor state of the hospital, describing it as not even fit for animals, not to talk of human beings could go to when they are sick.
“This place is very bad, it is not habitable, nobody should be seen working here, nobody should be seen coming here for treatment, this is a disaster waiting to happen.
“Since the Governor has directed we should rehabilitate three General Hospitals from each of the three senatotrial zones, we had in mind of Aba General Hospital for Abia South, but since things are like this, we will have to re-evaluate and take the Cottage Hospital as our second option and we are going to revitalize it within the next 60 days.”
At the General Hospital Aba, the Commissioner said she was not impressed with what she saw.
“The General Hospital, Aba is bad. The structure is poorly done, the design approach, poorly done, no equipments, the few available, are scattered all over the place. We can’t ascertain if they are working or not, its really a challenge”.
Okoronkwo said she came to see if the place built at the twilight of the Okezie Ikpeazu administration was ready for use, but regretted that from her assessment, it will take a while before the place is put to use.
“I will take this information back to the Governor and he will decide how to move forward from here”.
She said the state government has the intention of returning the place back to Aba General Hospital before the immediate past administration turned it to a Multi-purpose Hospital.
The Commissioner stated that ABSUTH which is also in Aba will continue to be the state’s referral centre and multi-purpose hospital, while the General Hospital she said is key to serving the under served, will for no reason be discarded or taken away from the place.
On equipments in the health facility said to have been vandalized, Dr. Okoronkwo said they would ascertain the level of vandalism after going through the contract papers.
A staff of the hospital, Dr. Offor Ikechi told journalists he was not happy with the state of equipment in the health facility.
He alleged that most of the equipments brought into the hospital had been removed, adding, “We saw when some equipments were brought in, but we’ve looked at the items here, there’s a disparity between what we saw brought in and what we are seeing now”.
Dr Offor expressed hope that with the visit of the Commissioner and the intervention of the state Governor, things will be put in order at the hospital.
