By Donald Ojebo
The management of the Asaba Specialist Hospital has been commended for possessing quality healthcare delivery equipment.
The equipment are rated to compete favourably with any other health facilities around the world.
The Delta State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Mordi Ononye, gave the commendation during a facility tour of the hospital with a view to ascertaining the level of heathcare being provided in the hospital.
He stated that with the type of medical equipment provided by the state government to upscale the services delivered in the hospital, it would, no doubt, meet up with the medical needs of residents of the state and at the same time address, to a greater extent, the issue of medical tourism.
“We are very impressed with the level of activities going on here. The level of care being offered by staff, the administrative skills and competence displayed by the Chief Medical Director (CMD) and her team, when compared to what it was at inauguration of the hospital show that they have greatly improved in their services,” the commissioner said.
Ononye said that having gone round the facilities and inspected the various departments, the equipment on ground could favourably compete with the best anywhere in the country.
He particularly singled out the X-ray unit which is one of its kind in the South South geopolitical region of Nigeria.
The commissioner encouraged the staff in the department to take advantage of the equipment available and make the place a centre of excellence through the judicious use of the equipment.
Commending the staff of the hospital further, the commissioner said that “I can see modern comprehensive health care is provided here and a committed workforce who are efficient and effectively carrying out their duties. I commend the CMD and her team for the very excellent work they are doing and urge them to keep it up. They have a good vision for the hospital and I see them working harmoniously to achieve the targets they have set for themselves and truly am really impressed.”
On the environment and level of hygiene being maintained, Ononye expressed satisfaction on the clean state of the hospital premises, the neat and tidy Wards, the well-kept surroundings and urged the management to maintain the clean standard they had set, adding that those in charge of cleaning and keeping the environment clean were doing their job well.
He advised the management to think outside the box, be innovative and come out with better ways of showcasing the good things happening in the hospital so that people could take advantage of care being offered and meet their health care needs without traveling far.
“Please work as a team, show love to the patients you care for in the course of carrying out your official duties, make sure you keep your heads above the waters so as to justify the funds that have been expended on procuring the state of the art medical equipment for the benefit of mankind,” the commissioner advised.
At the Administrative Building where some office spaces were used to warehouse medical items, earlier donated to the state during the peak of the COVID-19 Pandemic, the commissioner directed that an inventory of the items be taken and distributed within the next ten days to departments where they would be needed most and the space created be put into good use.
Dr. Daniel Isoje, Head of Department, Radiology, who guided the commissioner on the workings of the digital X-ray, MRI, and CT-scan machines, commended Governor Arthur Okowa for the much he had done to place the hospital on such a high pedestal.
“This CT Scan is a high resolution machine that we just finished installing and I believe this place is going to be a beehive of activities as this development will lead to more patronage from within and outside the state,” Isoje stated.
On the MRI device, Isoje said the device fell under the category of the newest equipment in terms of the number of slides and that no MRI machine in the South South had such capacity.
“The advantage this machine has is that during emergency cases, the time duration for result presentation is split seconds as against others which can take between 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the type of examination,” he explained.
On her part, Dr. Peace Ighosowe, Chief Medical Director of the hospital said that with the quality of equipment available, the hospital could commence Residency Programme.
She added that in some units, like the Chemical Pathology Unit, to ease manpower gap at the laboratory, management opted for the use of volunteer workers from corps members who served there.
She added that the unit also did quality control to ensure that tests results were reliable.
Other places inspected during the tour included the Haematology, oxygen plant, labour and neonatal wards, physiotherapy centre, Accident and Emergency, Dental Clinic, ophthalmology, sickle cell centre, among others.
