Joe Effiong, Uyo
A few years ago, it was regarded as a white elephant, an expensive one at that, considering the billions of naira sunk into it without producing the expected result.
It was equally regarded as one of the most expensive hospitals in Nigeria, meant only for bourgeoisie while ordinary taxpayers only walked pass in anguish, especially as that state government claim it was pouring money into it while the management was looking for more money like Oliver Twist. .
But that appears to have changed. Ibom Multi Specialty Hospital, otherwise called Ibom Specialist Hospital has resurrected. It recovery journey started with the appointment of the former Chief Medical Director of the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, Prof Emmanuel Ekanem, who assumed duty as the new CMD just last July on the self-imposed condition of turning round the fortunes of the hospital within three months or resigning.
He told Niger Delta Chronicle that immediately he took over, he slashed the cost of accessing treatment in the quaternary hospital by 50 percent because he wouldn’t want the locals to just be hearing of the hospital and could not be able to benefit from it.
“I can say here that currently, that hospital has resumed all the services it ever had and is giving a lot more services than it ever had. I can say confidently that it’s stronger, providing a wider range of services than it has ever done.
“When I came to the place and went to the store and I saw equipment that has been there since 2015 not used, I marveled. Those are equipment that would make many European hospital s jealous. So we opened and put them out to use for the first time,” Prof Ekanem said.
According to him, within the last three months, his team has reactivated a number of equipment and facilities that were lying redundant like the dialysis machines, water treatment plant, seven multi parameter monitors, and the Toshiba imaging system that enables the surgeons to see on the screens what they are doing either in the brain or in the spinal cord.
“ And because of that, you don’t need to travel outside this country again for any spinal cord injury because we can do it here in Akwa Ibom, We have infant incubators which can help us keep 20-22 week foetus alive with the equipment we have just you have any good hospital in the European countries.
“In this hospital, we can do a total hip replacement. You don’t need to go anywhere. We have both the equipment and the manpower to do it. We have done two successful operations in the brain. By next week or thereabout, we shall have taken out a tumour in somebody’s brain. These were very important personalities in this state and when it happened, they did not have any chance of survival if they were to be transported to any other location outside this state.
“While we want to attract people from other parts of the country and other parts of Africa, we must make those services accessible to the Akwa Ibom people. A middleclass Akwa Ibom people should be able to access them. We have sat down and done a drastic adjustment.
“Now what was the state of the hospital before I took over? It was not functional and I don’t intend to go beyond that. But what is the state of the hospital now? All the services that have been rendered in this hospital are back and a lot more have been introduced. I can confidently say that the hospital is now bigger, stronger and better than it has ever been.
Ekanem says he has no time for excuses as such his team has made use of what they have in term of facilities and equipment to turn the hospital around. “I don’t cry over what I don’t have; what I have on ground is enough for me to run this hospital effectively.”
He stated that the medical imaging of the hospital is second to none in Africa, adding that the laboratory is run by its staff. “I have said and I will say it again that when it comes to medical imaging we are second to none in Africa. The laboratory is run by our staff. We will start training radiologists from next year but not undergraduates but specialists,” he stated.
“One of my happiest days in that hospital had been when an old woman who is a trader in Itam Market, walked into the hospital and said: ‘This hospital is very beautiful. I want to be treated here.’ And all she had to do was obtain a card with only N5000. Is that out of the reach of an average middleclass Akwa Ibomite?” Prof Ekanem asked
He however said, the slash in prices is only for the time being; that with time the hospital would charge appropriate fees for appropriate treatments bearing in mind that most the patients should come through referrals instead of it being the first port of medical call,
The success story has already begun to bring goodwill across the globe to the hospital the recent being the use of the hospital facilites by Hospitals for Humanities, USA, to perform 28 successful heart surgeries free on infants. Ekanem said the success rate was 100 percent, with most the facilities and personnel sourced from the hospital.
Mr Kenneth Smith, a documentarian with the Hospitals for Humanities said Ibom Specialist Hospital was the only one chosen in the country for the free surgery to be carried out on children.
He said the facilities in the hospital attracted them to the facility, adding that he enjoyed the hospitality of the people and ambience in the state.
He said, “We chose coming here because of the potentials, we wanted to build together with this Hospital. We have a 100 percent success rate in each surgery and we have people coming all over from the UK and United States to make it happen, and also with Nigerian Doctors.
“This is my sixth trip as a documentarian and this is the best. There is a lot of potentials in this hospital. For example the radiography machine here is second to none. Whoever had the initial vision of this hospital had a good vision. The facilities here are optimum but more can be done,” he stated.