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Joe Effiong, Uyo
The Akwa Ibom State government has acquired 13 new respiratory ventilators preparatory to any emergency occasioned by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, despite the South-South state not recording any case of the disease.
Governor Udom Emmanuel on a tour of the Ibom Multi-Specialty Hospital in Uyo to inspect the newly acquired medical facilities said: “I came here with the experts so that we can see that those things are working well. We wanted the whole 13 ventilators checked to be sure they are working very well, even though we don’t have any incident now of the COVID-19 in the state.”
Governor Emmanuel stressed that his administration would continue to be proactive in providing healthcare facilities in Akwa Ibom State in line with his premium on the health of his people.
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While commending the Chief Medical Director of the hospital and the Commissioner for Health on the level of improvement noticed, Emmanuel said the visit was also to “ensure that they have expanded the number of beds that we ordered to accommodate extra 20 facilities in case of any emergency, and I’m happy with what I’ve seen.
“It is not just to check the state of preparedness that we came, it’s to make sure what we’ve put on ground are functional and are working well.”
He expressed satisfaction with the state of facility available in the Intensive Care Unit, Emergency Theatre, ventilators for adults and babies as well as other state-of-the-art equipment recently acquired by the state government, and expressed satisfaction with the new emergency theatre his administration put in place at the facility, saying it is unprecedented in any government hospital anywhere in Nigeria.
Addressing the press, the governor said: “I’m sure you saw the kind of emergency theatre we have there. I want to be corrected, if that is in any teaching hospital in Nigeria let somebody show me or take me there. And that’s something we just fixed two months ago.
“When we tell people the amount of money we spend on medical equipment, people did not know a day like this will come, so now we are opening up our containers.”
The governor made clear that equipment at the hospital are not a reaction to the coronavirus scare, but rather “we are interested in every aspect of illness and to make sure that all our citizens are well taken care of.”
“We don’t just react. We put things in place to take care of the health of our citizens because every single life is as important as the life of the governor,” he added.
Mr Emmanuel commended the state medical team and assured that government would continue to monitor the healthcare situation in the state, not just the coronavirus, vowing to be ahead of any disease outbreak.
“It is not only coronavirus that we should be concerned about. Malaria kills, too. So we are interested in every aspect of illness and to make sure that all our citizens are well taken care of,” the governor said.
