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Tag: UCH

  • Ajimobi rescues, conveys accident victims to UCH

    Passers-by and jubilant residents of Iwo Road in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, have lauded the humanitarian gesture of Governor Abiola Ajimobi for rescuing and evacuating some accident victims in the capital city.

    Then governor was also said to have conveyed them to the University College Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan.

    The governor, who personally accompanied the accident victims to the Accident and Emergency Ward of the hospital around 5 p.m on Tuesday, had just returned from Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, where he attended President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election campaign rally.

    Sources said a hit-and-run driver knocked a motorcycle conveying the rider and his female passenger to the ground around 4 p.m.

    Read also: AfDB: why Nigeria, South Africa, others must not limit competition

    They reportedly sustained head injury and fractures.

    An eyewitness, Tajudeen Adebare, who sells tyres in the area, said onlookers feared that they might get into trouble if they rescued the victims and took them to the hospital without a police report, should any of them die.

    He said: “Everybody was afraid of going near them. A reckless driver, who ought to obey the ‘drive slowly’ signs placed on the road because of the expansion works, ignored the signs and drove recklessly into the area.

  • Doctors, UCH settle 12 indigent patients’ bills

    The University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, and its branch of the Medical and Dental Consultants’ Association of Nigeria (MDCAN) have settled the medical bills of 12 indigent patients at the hospital.

    The association paid about N400,000 to the patients, mostly children tied down in the hospital due to their financial incapability to settle their bills.

    The affected patients are in the medical, surgical and psychological departments of the hospital.

    The cash donation, which was in collaboration with the hospital management, was part of activities marking MDCAN’s annual general meeting (AGM).

    The weeklong AGM with the theme, Team Building in the Health Management and Leadership in Contemporary Nigeria, began yesterday and will end on September 30.

    Addressing reporters on the meeting, MDCAN’s Chairman Dr Victor Makanjuola said while the association presented the cash to the patients, the UCH management granted waivers on various fees to the patients, including bed and surgical fees.

    Makanjuola, who was accompanied by UCH’s Chairman of Medical Advisory Committee, Dr. Victor Akinmoladun and other executives of MDCAN, visited the patients in their wards.

    The union chairman said the beneficiaries were selected after their cases were reviewed and it was discovered that the beneficiaries could not settle their hospital bills.

    He added that despite the non-payment of the salaries of the doctors in the last three months, the association’s members were undeterred in showing kind gesture to the needy.

    The beneficiaries included a 17-year-old boy, Sanni Akinkunmi Abdullahi in East One Ward, who got N40,000; 17-month-old baby, Afolabi Oluwaseyi and a 22-year-old woman, Esther Olaoye, who was delivered of a boy through surgery.

    Makanjuola said: “I must also bring to the notice of the public that we in MDCAN as well as some of our younger colleagues (interns) in UCH have not been paid our allowances and salaries in the past three months. Nevertheless, we have been consistently delivering clinical services.

    “This information is important to correct the erroneous belief by the public that doctors always go on strike for money. The non-payment of salaries has also not prevented us, as an association, from being charitable to the underprivileged.”

    On the theme of the AGM, the chairman said it was chosen in recognition of the inter-professional rivalry in the Health sector, its attendant negative effects on service delivery and health-related indices.

  • Man commits suicide at UCH

    •Jumps from 5th floor

    A man, whose identity is yet to be ascertained, yesterday committed suicide at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.

    He reportedly jumped from the fifth floor.

    Sources said the victim, aged between 50 and 60, removed his pair of leather slippers before jumping to the ground floor.

    Unconfirmed reports said the deceased, who wore ankara, had a suicide note in his pocket.

    He was alleged to have written that he committed suicide because he was duped of N30 million.

    Sources said the note was with the men of Oyo State Police Command, who were invited to the scene by the hospital management.

    Eyewitnesses said the man landed with his head and died immediately.

    He was said to have been certified dead by doctors, who attempted to rescue him.

    When The Nation visited the scene, blood stains were on the floor opposite the mortuary.

    His remains were said to have been taken to the mortuary.

    Spokesman Ayodeji Bobade confirmed the incident.

    He said the deceased was not an employee, adding that his identity was unknown.

    Bobade said the police had been invited to unravel the deceased’s identity.

    Efforts to reach police spokesman did not yield result last night.

  • UCH security guards, cleaners protest 13 months’ salary arrears

    GOVEMENT was restricted yesterday at the entrance to the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, as security guards and cleaners protested unpaid salary of 13 months.

    The protesters, who gathered about 6:30 am at the administrative office, however, did not prevent workers from entering the hospital.

    Many carried placards, such as: “Pay us our salary, it is our right”; “No pay, no work”; “We are dying of hunger, please pay our salaries”; “Our salary is our money, please pay us”, to express their displeasure and seek attention of management to their plight; others drank gari  to show their poor conditions.

    The demonstrators sang solidarity songs to express their grievances.

    Some protesters, who spoke on condition of anonymity, urged the government to intervene, alleging that the management told them there was no money to pay them.

    A security officer, Sunday Ayorinde, who noted that the protesters were contract workers, said the action was a follow up to last November’s.

    He said: “We have been here since 7 am to protest peacefully over the salary owed us, running into 13 months. Although we are contract workers, we are posted here and we do our work here. We are not being paid.

    “We received our salary a week after the permanent workers had received theirs. But since last year we have not been receiving salary. That was why we protested last November, which was the first time.

    “The management appealed to us through the Chief Medical Director, Prof. Temitope Alonge, who said the hospital cannot continue to pay the salary of security guards and cleaners.

    ‘’He promised to look into the matter, but since then, we have not heard anything. We appeal to the authority to look into our matter, as we are dying of hunger.”

    A cleaner, Mrs. Bamidele Ajoke, said: “I have three children in tertiary institutions and I’ve worked here for years. Since 11 months, I’ve not received salary. It’s so sad.”

    Mr. Oluwasegun Sunday, a security guard, said:  “Most of us have died of hunger. We drink gari. We don’t have money to pay rent, let alone medical bills and children’s school fees. We have not been receiving salary.”

    The protesters vowed not to resume duty.

    UCH spokesman Ayodeji Bobade said two companies were in charge of paying  cleaners and security guards, since they were not direct employees of the hospital.

    He said the management would meet the companies today, adding that the Federal Ministry of Finance had promised to send their wages to the contracting companies.

  • UCH Ibadan as death centre

    Sir: I write this from a place of inconsolable grief, sheer anguish, unimaginable pain, and the very zenith of fury having lost a dear one so cheaply and unjustifiably in a place that is erroneously believed to be safe but apparently needs saving itself. An institution riddled with egomaniacal doctors with God complexes, nurses like witches, patients attendants who will not attend to you until you have called them a billion times; morticians who will milk you out of your very life savings just to get the remains ready for burial without caring that you were just bereaved. Almost everyone there just seemed inappropriate for their respective jobs – such a shambolic and toxic environment!

    We had rushed to the emergency department calling for help at about 12am with our dear Oluwaseun diagnosed with cardiac failure, but it took 15 minutes to have a not-so-friendly looking doctor amble to the car we brought her in just to see whether or not the case was an emergency. Soon we were asked to pay for so many written things including an oxygen tube so that she could breathe, but getting to the cashier, he told us in no uncertain terms that he would not attend to us until he has devoured his bowl of amala!

    Only when a senior nurse came and spoke some sense into the fellow did he reluctantly attended to us after he heard that the patient was dying.

    Eventually, Oluwaseun was checked into the resuscitation unit and trust me, that place reeked of death. A resuscitation centre that had only one functional ECG monitor to serve four dying patients; not even a single defibrillator, stuffy as hell. Two malfunctioning air conditioning systems while every last office there had working ones. It was generally a place prepared to make patients sweat their very weak pulses out. It should rather be called a euthanasia ward. How patients were objectified was absolutely distressing. One had a euphoric shimmer of hope when a team of smug doctors strolled in like demigods only to realise that they came to learn with the patients rather than care for them. What is the point of acquiring redundant knowledge?

    We screamed for help but they were rather concerned with quietening us than reviving Oluwaseun. They managed to get to her, gave her a few chest compressions in a futile CPR charade, chatting and laughing while at it, and then pronounced her dead JUST LIKE THAT. We had waited and waited for the cardiologist who neither showed up nor called for her to be relocated to the cardiology unit until she gave up at 7:20 pm on March 17. This is a brilliant Unilag graduate due for NYSC in a few weeks. Someone’s beloved daughter, beautiful sister and wonderful friend; someone’s decades of physical, psychological and financial investment left for dead in a Nigerian foremost health centre.

    Oluwaseun Ezekiel we love you. Even though you were a victim of inept doctors and failed health policies, you forever will be in our hearts. I write this hoping to find some closure by laying it all bare, peradventure it would get to relevant authorities who will amend and enforce the standard operating procedures of this terrible health facility.

     

    • Enoch B. Godson, Ibadan.
  • World Cancer Day: UCH to build N5b centre

    World Cancer Day: UCH to build N5b centre

    The University College Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, has said it will need N5 billion to complete its ultra-modern cancer centre.

    The N5 billion centre, which began last year during the hospital’s 60th anniversary, will require N2 billion for the structure and N3 billion to equip the specialist centre.

    Addressing reporters yesterday during the World Cancer Day, UCH’s Chief Medical Director (CMD) Prof Temitope Alonge regretted that about 70 per cent of cancer patients seek medical attention after the disease would have advanced.

    The CMD noted that the decease is treatable, if it is diagnosed early.

    He added that the teaching hospital has recorded many feats in prevention, early detection, treatment and providing end-of-life care for patients.

    Regretting the dearth of equipment to meet the rising cases of cancer, Alonge urged public-spirited Nigerians to assist the hospital to have a N251 million brachytherapy machine for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

    With the machine in place, the CMD said many breast cancer patients would not lose their breasts while men who undergo surgery for prostate cancer would still remain sexually active.

    Alonge said the hospital had concluded arrangement for free breast cancer screening for UCH’s female workers and members of the National Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ) in Oyo State.

    He said: “There are more cases of breast cancer now. We have at least five new cases every day. No fewer than 50 breast cancer patients come for treatment on a daily basis. To increase awareness that it is preventable and can be treated, all female workers of UCH and NAWOJ members will have a free screening for breast cancer.

    “We shall also provide free treatment for anyone diagnosed with hepatitis to prevent liver cirrhosis, which may lead to liver cancer. Before April, all male workers of the UCH will have free screening for prostate cancer.”

     

  • Anenih gives ambulances to UCH

    Anenih gives ambulances to UCH

    A former Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Anthony Anenih, has donated two specialised ambulances to the Chief Tony Anenih Geriatric Centre at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State capital.

    The ambulances, which are valued at over N20 million, are equipped with facilities to move elders on wheelchairs, give them medical attention from their homes to the geriatric centre.

    The centre was established in 2012 to provide health care to people from 60 and above.

    It also has a National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) for which patients pay N18,000 annually to access a robust health care service.

    At the inauguration of the ambulances yesterday, UCH Chief Medical Director (CMD) Prof. Temitope Alonge said the facilities would complement the care for the aged at the geriatric centre.

    The CMD noted that the care of the aged, the elderly and the vulnerable determines the fortune or otherwise of any nation.

    He said: “Any nation that looks after the elderly and the innocent or vulnerable children, is bound to do well. But any society that does not appreciate the fact that the contributions of older persons have a remarkable impact on every part of life, including the economy, that nation will never do well. Some of the curses I believe are hovering over Nigeria might be related, one way or the other, by our nonchalant attitude to the care of the under-fives and the elderly.

    “We have a lot of care and policies on paper, but nothing in terms of full implementation and the fact that we pay lip services to the care of the elderly. These are men and women, who in the prime of their lives, have actually added value and have worked in various corporations in the country. They all deserve to be taken care off in their old age.

    “These two ambulances would complement the two tricycles which had been used in commuting patients, from the centre to and from the main gate, to ease their transportation. They would also be used to pick up patients whose wards cannot afford to bring their parents to the clinic at UCH at designated pick-up points in Ibadan.”

  • Osinbajo to UCH, others: embrace innovation to overcome poor funding

    Osinbajo to UCH, others: embrace innovation to overcome poor funding

    Vice President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday advised the management of the University College Hospital (UCH) in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, and other government institutions to embrace innovation to overcome funding challenges.

    He said government alone cannot fully fund them.

    Osinbajo spoke at the hospital’s 60th anniversary lecture in Ibadan.

    After praising the hospital for its breakthroughs and impacts in the last 60 years, the Vice President noted that the decadence that afflicted Nigerian institutions since the 1990s would not go away by wishful thinking or by expecting that government would suddenly provide enough money to solve their challenges.

    He urged the UCH to “aggressively and creatively grow its partnerships, linkages” and engagement with the private sector and philanthropic organisations as well as individuals to deliver superior healthcare service to Nigerians.

    Osinbajo advised the management of the hospital to create the picture of where UCH would be in the next 10 years and leverage on partnerships, collaborations and linkages to support government funding in the quest to achieve the dream.

    The Vice President said governments all over the world are not fully responsible for the funding of education and healthcare, adding that creativity and innovation of managers of such institutions would address the funding shortfall.

    He stressed the essence of new technologies in delivering improved service in the hospital system.

    According to him, the infrastructural deficit arising from neglect in past years remains the greatest challenge of government today.

    Osinbajo added that the Muhammadu Buhari administration had been spending more than any other administration to address this problem.

    For instance, the Vice President said around N1.3 billion had been budgeted for capital projects in the 2018 budget, the highest in recent history of the country, even in percentage.

    “However, this amount is still very far from what we actually need to fix infrastructures in Nigeria. So, we must integrate the private sector,” he said.

    Osinbajo noted that the UCH could be a global centre of excellence, if it embraced innovation by involving the private sector.

    The hospital’s Chief Medical Director (CMD) Prof. Temitope Alonge said the UCH had largely achieved its mandate of training healthcare workers who will serve all over Nigeria and other West African countries as well as render high quality medical service to patients.

    The CMD said the breakthroughs of the hospital include nuclear medicine, heart surgery and geriatric care.

    He called for improved funding for the institution, saying it received only about 25 per cent of what it needed for overhead expenses.

    Health Minister Prof. Isaac Adewole said the UCH was among four federal hospitals to be renovated with funds from the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF).

    The minister said the Federal Government was determined to ensure the success of the project.

    He said N9 billion was provided for the UCH in the 2018 Appropriation, adding that the government had approved the promotion of about 700 of its workers for this year.

    Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi praised the hospital and pledged his administration’s continued support and partnership with it.

    Ajimobi said the future looked bright for the hospital, adding that UCH added to the uniqueness of Ibadan and Oyo State.

    He said the newly inaugurated Kensington Adebutu’s Geriatric Rehabilitation Centre and the Cancer Centre, whose foundation was being laid, offered hope of a greater future for the hospital.

    The Vice President inaugurated the rehabilitation centre and turned the sod of the cancer centre as part of the anniversary celebration.

    Legal luminary, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), hailed the UCH for offering leadership in Nigeria’s heath sector.

    He called for improved remuneration for medical workers and urged philanthropic Nigerians to support the health and education sectors.

    At the lecture were Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN); former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was represented by Dr Femi Majekodunmi; the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Saliu Adetunji and his Lagos counterpart, Oba Rilwan Akiolu.

    Emeritus professor of Medicine, Theophilus Ogunlesi, who is also the first professor of Medicine in Nigeria, presented the lecture.

    Several professors of Medicine and community leaders attended the programme.

    Also, Oba Akiolu ignored Oba Saliu Adetunji at the event.

    Dignitaries, including Vice President Osinbajo, Governor Ajimobi and Oba Akiolu had taken their seats on the high table.

    Oba Adetunji came in much later.

    The Lagos monarch sat on the left end of the platform.

    As the Olubadan walked up the stairs to the high table to join other dignitaries, from the left side where Oba Akiolu was the first on the row, the Lagos monarch looked away.

    Even Ajimobi, who many people believed was not in good terms with the monarch, rose up to welcome the monarch.

     

     

  • Murder: I didn’t kill my husband, wife tells court

    Murder: I didn’t kill my husband, wife tells court

    In dramatic twist, an Ibadan-based Lawyer, Mrs Yewande Oyediran  who was accused of stabbing her husband to death has denied the charges levelled against her at an Oyo State High Court, Ring Road, on Monday.

    Mrs. Oyediran, who was alleged to have killed her late husband, Lowo Oyediran, a France-based Businessman, told the court that she had a scuffle with her husband on February 2, 2017 and in the process the late husband threatened her with a knife.

    Led in evidence by her lead Counsel, Mr. Leye Adepoju, during the Examination-in-chief, she narrated how her late husband met his untimely death on the fateful day.

    Her Words: ”We had earlier had a scuffle in which my late husband beat me up and it was settled by our landlord and his wife and my husband had gone for treatment in a neighbourhood hospital, after I had inflicted some cuts on him, because he had pressed me on the bed and continually hit on me.

    “This was the aftermath of a phone call I received from a woman on that night who had earlier claimed that he had a child for my husband. My husband has confirmed it and we have quarreled over it, but has settled the issue since she first called me on July 7, 2015.

    ”However, after some few hours, he became angry again and started hitting me with a plank. He was angry about the wounds and threatened to retaliate. I managed to escape and he still followed me outside with a knife and pressed me to our Landlord’s car.

    ”Later, I felt that I have been able to push him off me, only to later realise that it was actually our landlord that had helped me out of his grips.

    ”I rushed to our landlord’s flat and once inside, i turned to see what was going on behind me, only to see my husband coming after me. Suddenly, I saw him falling on his back as he tried to climb the steps to the apartment.

    ”I rushed back after him and tried to pull him up only to see blood gushing out of his neck. I quickly shouted for help and the landlord and his wife together with his son and a Doctor whose clinic was on our street, tried to apply first aid”.

    ”My landlady told me my Landlord to take my husband to the hospital, but he declined saying that there was blood on his car and so needed to wash it before he can take it out.

    ”My landlord and I went to our neighbour, Mrs Olubunmi Onipede, to help me take him to the hospital, but she refused too, saying that I earlier insulted her when she came to intervene in the earlier scuffle.

    ” Eventually, she agreed to take us to the hospital later I have promised to fuel her car the next day, because she had told us she didn’t have fuel in her car.

    ”While on our way to the University Teaching Hospital, UCH, as advised by the Doctor inside our compound, our neighbour, stopped at the hospital on our street claiming that we needed to collect a referral, but the Nurse on duty, said we didn’t need one and I also heard the voice of the Doctor in the back ground telling her we didn’t need one, but that we should rush to UCH.

    ”We proceeded towards the hospital only for her to take Akobo Road, when we got to General Gas Road, instead of the Iwo Road that is shorter, I asked why she was taking the route, but she replied that we must take him to the nearest hospital because it was an emergence case.

    ”At that time,  I still kept calling my husband, ”lowo”, ”lowo” and he was nodding to me even though his eyes were closed.

    In response to an earlier statement made by her neighbour, she told the court that it was actually her that was screaming and calling for help when her husband slumped and not the husband himself as claimed by the witness.

    When her lead Defense Counsel asked her point-blank whether she killed her husband, she became emotional and said, ”I did not kill my husband. I love my husband, even if we quarrel, it won’t be to the point of death”.

    However, she admitted when asked by the Prosecuting Counsel, Mr.S.S. Akinyele that it was the offending phone call from her husband’s lover that precipitated the scuffle between her and her husband that fateful night.

    The Presiding Judge, who is also the Chief Judge of Oyo State, after conferring with both legal teams, instructed that the Defense legal team should file and serve its written address on the Prosecuting team on or before June 19, 2017, while the prosecuting team should respond by July 4, 2017, with the response of the  defense slated for July 10, 2017, which has been set aside for adoption by the court.

     

  • Health officer urges mothers to join fight against malaria

    Health officer urges mothers to join fight against malaria

    As the rains intensify, Mrs Grace Adekoya, Chief Public Health Nursing Officer, University College Hospital(UCH), Ibadan, has called on nursing mothers to join government in the fight against malaria.

    Adekoya told newsmen on Wednesday in Ibadan that there was usually high transmission of malaria and other communicable diseases during the rainy season.

    “Mothers should endeavour to take special care of their babies and children, especially when entrusting them in the care of helpers and daycare attendants.

    “Infants should be kitted with appropriate clothing to fight the cold weather and also, the environment should be clean,” she said.

    According to Adekoya, malaria is an endemic disease that has been plaguing tropical regions like Nigeria.

    She said that the Federal Government and international agencies had spent a lot of money to fight the disease.

    The health official said that the primary causes of malaria in both children and adults are the vector anopheles mosquitoes, which breed in stagnant waters in our homes and environments.

    “The way our refuse and wastes are managed are also influencing factors that cause the spread of many water-related and air-borne diseases, among which malaria is one of them.

    “As a prevention strategy, I advise we make our surroundings clean, as well as ensure there are no weeds and grasses near homes.

    “Water tanks should be properly covered because, if not, mosquito larvae will grow on it within three days.

    “Also, rain water should be properly covered and not oxygenated.

    “We should also ensure proper drainage of used water from the kitchen and toilets so that mosquito breeding through this stagnated water will be avoided,” she said.

    Adekoya said that some control measures against malaria would include ensuring the prompt treatment of those having malaria, as well as making sure that no carrier of malaria parasites was left untreated.

    On the treatment of malaria, she said: “Treatment of malaria includes its prevention and ensuring that the vector mosquito is avoided or prevented.

    “The use of the drug, Artemether, in addition to one or two other anti-malaria drugs, is a recommended effective standard dose by the WHO.

    “In very rare cases, malaria leads to cerebral malaria, which is common in children and pregnant women.

    “To avoid this from occurring, prophylactic treatment is given to pregnant women prior to delivery.

    “We should also ensure that our children and family live in well-netted homes and sleep under treated mosquito nets.

    “The best way to treat malaria is by preventing it; if you have been bitten by mosquitoes before going under the nets, it is as good as not having any net prevention,” she said.

    According to Adekoya, the UCH had treated 229 malaria cases in children between the ages of one and four, in the Children and Emergency Ward, between August 2016 and February 2017.

    She commended the efforts of government at all levels in their intervention strategy to curb and eliminate malaria by distributing free malaria treated mosquito nets.

    The expert also called on all stakeholders to join in the fight against malaria through intensified prevention and sensitization mechanisms, especially during the rainy season.