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From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
Abia government has said it will 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 Commissioner for Health, Ngozi Okoronkwo, at the Aba Cottage Hospital, World Bank Housing Estate, Abayi, during an inspection visit to health facilities in the city.
Okoronkwo lamented the poor state of the hospital, describing it as not fit for animals, not to talk of human beings.
“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 senatorial 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 revitalise it within the next 60 days,”she said.
At the general hospital, Aba, the commissioner said she was not impressed with what she saw.
“The hospital s bad. The structure is poorly done, the design approach, poorly done, no equipment, the few available are scattered all over the place. We can’t ascertain if they are working or not, it’s really a challenge,” she said.
Okoronkwo said she came to see if the place built at the twilight of the former governor 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.
She said the state government has the intention of returning the place 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 equipment in the health facility said to have been vandalised, Okoronkwo said they would ascertain the level of vandalism after going through the contract papers.
A staff of the hospital, Offor Ikechi told newsmen he was not happy with the state of equipment in the health facility.
He alleged that most of the equipment brought into the hospital had been removed, adding, “we saw when some equipment 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.”
Offor expressed hope that with the visit of the commissioner and the intervention of the governor, things will be put in order at the hospital.
