The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) Prof. Ikpeme A. Ikpeme, has said that the Cross River State Government has no Isolation Centre.
The CMD, who was speaking in Calabar, explained that the only Isolation Centre he knew of belong to the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital and that the Isolation Centre is a five rooms facility that has four standard ICU beds and two functional ventilators.
Prof. Ikpeme, however, solicited the assistance of the government, organizations and public-spirited individuals to expand the Isolation Center to at least a 20 bed facility with the equal number of ventilators.
He said that the UCTH Isolation Centre, at present was basically the only Centre equipped to handle any case of COVID-19 that may arise in Cross River State.
“At the beginning of the COVID-19 scare, our Isolation Centre was far from being completed, and still is. We had to mobilize items from within the hospital with donations from the NCDC and the Cross River State Government to get four rooms functional including a staff area.
“Currently, we have 4 functional rooms ready to take in any confirmed case based on the agreed NCDC protocol. Two out of those 4 rooms are equipped with functional ventilators.
“It is instructive to note that a team was sent from NCDC about two months ago to assess our Isolation Centre and there were many modifications they recommended. We are still awaiting their action as promised.”
“A protocol for the management of any suspected case has been drawn up in accordance with NCDC protocol and this has been activated by our COVID-19 Task Force.
“This team is a multi-disciplinary team and they are the frontline health workers working with management to confront this pandemic. The entire staff of UCTH have been briefed on the UCTH COVID-19 protocols through their Heads of Departments/Units as well as their Unions.
“We have scaled down activities giving room for mainly emergencies and discouraging cold cases being seen at this time. We have been able to fix two of our ventilators and they are now permanently in the Isolation Centre in full working condition.
“Since activation of the Isolation Centre, we have admitted one suspected case but discharged her after about 5 days admission when her result came out negative for COVID-19. It was indeed a test case because there was so much anxiety and news had gone out in the social media that a positive case was in UCTH.
“I must commend the gallantry of our COVID-19 Task Force and our Emergency staff for daring to rise to the occasion creditably on this case. In fact, this suspected case had her birthday celebrated with her by the Infection Control team and members of Management,” he stated.
