The Chairman, Advisory Committee, Ota General Hospital, in the Ado Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State, Bamgboye Oshunlabu, has accused the state Ministry of Health of removing some medical equipment donated to the facility.
Oshunlabu said two companies, Unilever and WEMCO, as well as a non-governmental organisation, Lions Club, donated a dialysis machine and ventilator, among others, to the hospital to improve its service delivery to patients.
However, the community leader said some officials, acting on the instructions of the Ministry of Health, took the donated equipment away, adding that the situation had affected operations in the hospital.
Oshunlabu stated, “Some days ago, the Olota of Ota called me that there was information vital to him that he wanted to share with me.
“He said in the new building, which Lever Brothers (Unilever) and WEMCO donated to the Ota General Hospital, some people from Abeokuta removed certain equipment from the building. He said I should go there and find out for myself.
“When I got there, I discovered that the dialysis machine and ventilator and one other machine had been removed from the hospital, and I was told that the instruction came from the state Ministry of Health. Nobody informed me as the chairman of the hospital’s advisory committee.
“I was told that they said the equipment should be moved to Abeokuta and that there’s nothing the hospital’s staff members could do as they are civil servants and they could not say or do anything about it.”
Oshunlabu also decried the worsening condition of the general hospital, adding that its emergency unit had become an eyesore.
He added, “The community is suffering; that hospital caters for people as far as Idi-Iroko, and people come from the border towns to this place, because they know that the hospital will be able to cater for their health, but on getting here, they are disappointed.
“We are crying out to the government to help us. My committee has only had a meeting with the state health officials since the beginning of this administration.”
The Commissioner for Health, Tomi Coker, said Oshunlabu was playing politics with the hospital.
She said, “I was approached by a friend in Unilever, who said they wanted to donate some equipment to us. Lafarge built the building, while Unilever equipped it.
“What happened was that the equipment was just lying there at Ota and the doctor there said that the specification was too high and they had no personnel to operate it; so, we moved it to where it was needed most in the state.”
“I am a medical doctor by profession and I have nothing to gain by playing politics with people’s lives. Why should machines that cost about N500m be left unused when they are needed in other parts of the state? I am a professional to the core, so I am not interested in their politics. The machines are needed to save lives.”
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