From Bisi Oladele, Ibadan
A discord, which can impair the management of Coronavirus pandemic in Oyo State, is growing between the state government and the management of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.
The Nation gathered that the UCH is angry about the manner in which the state government is disseminating information about the management of the virus, which is portraying the foremost hospital as the centre of infection.
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state stands at 17 as at 7pm yesterday. While 10 have been discharged, one death has been recorded. One was transferred to Lagos, leaving the state with five active cases.
The state government had announced that UCH accounted for 44 per cent of the total number of cases in the state, which the hospital interpreted as a deliberate attempt to soil its reputation.
The Nation learnt that the state government did not partner the hospital in its efforts to contain the spread of the virus. It partnered the Virology Department of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, turning its laboratory to a test centre through funding. The college is located on the premises of the UCH, but is under the governance of the University of Ibadan.
To date, the hospital recorded four cases – the Chief Medical Director, Chairman of the Governing Board, Provost, College of Medicine and his deputy. The four of them self-isolated and received treatment till they tested negative again.
The Chairman, Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), Dr. Dayo Williams, who was announced to have tested positive, later tested negative after 24 hours of the first test. It was learnt that the management of the hospital took his sample to Ede, Osun State test centre where it tested positive.
The management believed that the second test report confirmed its doubt about the first test done in Ibadan.
The Nation can report that UCH is also not happy that the committee engaged its staff unofficially while the hospital was on partial holiday due to the initial order of the Federal Government for civil servants to stay at home.
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On learning that they had to return to work based on the latest Federal Government order, the state government rushed to the UCH with an April 20 letter officially requesting a number of staff as well as a collaboration.
With enough personnel and plenty of facilities, the hospital expected that the state government would rather partner it officially and leverage on its strength in tackling the pandemic in addition to that of the College of Medicine.
The hospital, which set up an isolation centre, has also handled two cases from the state government, one of who died on Wednesday. The other, who was among the first set of confirmed cases, was transferred to Lagos on personal request.
The hospital is not happy that the death of the victim was being announced by the state government in addition to the cases of other workers, giving the impression that the UCH has become an infection centre.
According to a source, the hospital did not receive any monetary or facility support from the state or federal government in its drive to effectively handle the pandemic, being the biggest and most equipped hospital in the state.
The source said both the hospital and the state should have worked together in ways that will see the hospital strengthened to handle confirmed cases, just as it happened in Lagos where the Lagos State Government quickly built a 60-bed isolation centre at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba with other support for effective management.
Rather, the source said UCH is being projected as incompetent and a centre of infection by the state government. The source added that the UCH was being projected as the hospital handling all the cases in Oyo State, which is incorrect.
The Nation learnt that the situation may degenerate into an official crisis, leading to a rejection of the committee’s application for institutional collaboration, which will ultimately hurt the management of the pandemic.
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