The people of Agbara-Otor community have been assured of the early completion of the on-going State General Hospital in their community to enable them have access to affordable health care service as encapsulated in the Governor Okowa SMART Agenda.
The Delta state commissioner for health, Dr. Mordi Ononye, gave the assurance during a scheduled inspection visit to the on-going General Hospital project at Agbara-Otor, Ughelli North local government area of the state.
Speaking on the essence of the visit, the commissioner said “we have gone round to access the state of readiness so that we begin to put in the equipment we need for the hospital to kickstart and also advice ourselves on the other things we need to do to get it functional”.
Dr. Ononye said that Governor Okowa decided to complete the hospital project which was long overdue in order to serve the health needs of the community and its environs.
He disclosed that the idea of the hospital was conceived during the tail end of the Chief Ibori’s administration while the foundation was laid during the Dr. Uduaghan’s administration over 10 years ago and hence the need to complete the project.
The commissioner who expressed happiness that the new facility is bigger than the Ekpan General Hospital with much space commended the work done so far. “We have seen the drive way, very solid work and there is a lot of space to do lot of things and we will not allow this hospital to lay waste and therefore we must put it into immediate use,” he said.
Addressing the representative of the leadership of the community after his inspection of the facility, Dr. Ononye said: “we have to do some adjustments to make the place much more contemporary. We have showed the contractor those things that must be done because what we want is that even though the structure is almost fully completed, there are still some things to do because we want to commission a facility that meets with contemporary standards”.
“We will be back in 10 days’ time to access the progress of work and make sure the things we pointed out to the contractor are addressed because we cannot move in the equipment until those things are done in order not to damage the equipment”.
The contractor handling the project, Mr. John Idogun, who conducted the Commissioner and his Team round the project site assured of early completion and said it would be in line with the Bills of quantity (BOQ) as he has taken note of the areas pointed out by the Commissioner.
On his part, Chief London Okuwhere, Acting President-General, Agbara-Otor kingdom assured the Commissioner that his community will take ownership of the hospital project and also make sure the infrastructure and personnel are protected even as he promised that a conducive environment would be provided for the hospital to thrive.
Areas inspected included the mortuary, theatres, maternity, records, laundry, male, female and children wards, out patients department comprising the consulting rooms, accident and emergency area.
Present during the visit were the Director, Planning Research and Statistics, Ministry of Health, Dr. Ejiro Ogheneaga, Director, Hospital Services, Hospital Management Board, Dr. Fumilayo Omaraka, representative of the Community which include Olorogun Oscar Ibru among others
