The hospital’s Medical Director, Prof. Shehu Sale, stated this in an interview with newsmen on Monday in Sokoto.
He commended the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), and Ministers of Health for their support and encouragement to the hospital management that ensured the hospital facelift as well as all round upgrade in the facility. Sale promised to remain steadfast in his determination to always provide affordable and excellent services to patients.
The MD said the hospital currently hosts a total of 17 visiting consultants, who are specialists in different medical fields, among other professionals.
“The hospital has world-class equipment such as mobile digital x-ray machine, mobile ultrasound machine, ultrasonography machine, digitalised medical and diagnostic records system, occupational therapy equipment and modern laboratory tools,” Prof. Sale revealed.
He disclosed that the Federal Government had also funded new major projects in its COVID-19 interventions at the hospital.
These, he said, included construction and equipping of intensive care unit, construction and equipping of molecular laboratory, construction and equipping of isolation centre and procurement of Personal Protective Equipment.
He said the completed projects were already impacting positively on service delivery and protection of both staff and patients of the hospital.
According to him, the projects will also deliver improved healthcare to the hard-to-reach communities, in line with the government’s commitment to provide essential healthcare services.
Sale noted that total bed space and staff strength had been increased, while the restoration of full accreditation status to the Post-Basic Psychiatric Nursing School at the hospital had been done.
He said patients’ feeding system, laundry, drugs administration, sanitation of hospital environment had been ensured to best standards while workers welfare was prioritised as accorded by unions.
He further explained that in the past five years, the management renovated and upgraded all wards, including administrative block and staff quarters in the hospital to modern standards, and embarked on the construction of gates, perimeter fence, road networks, street lighting, laboratories and pharmacy.
He explained that the hospital provided integrated healthcare services to the people through digitalised finance and administrative record system, along with a steady solar-powered and conventional electricity supply.
He added that the FG had awarded another contract for the construction of the Regional Women and Children Drug Dependence Treatment Centre in the hospital, which would cater to diverse health needs of the vulnerable sub-population.
He added that the centre, along with the established family health clinic, would address the negative perception of people with regards to mental health issues and reduce stigma associated with hospital services.
On hospital transformations, the Medical Director explained that rates of hospital services have been readjusted to complement the advancements in the society in terms of consumables, reagents and other situational changes which affected individuals and organisations globally.
He noted that management had automated hospital services in line with global best practices from centralised payment system, medical diagnostics, doctors’ consultations and overall medical records.
According to him, the progress made so far in the hospital, especially in terms of upgrading existing facilities and consolidation of skilled manpower development, were all facilitated by the Federal Ministry of Health, which was the mother supervising ministry.
“Recently, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission has supported the hospital with patients’ rehabilitation and empowerment equipment.
“The gesture was aimed at promoting a public health approach toward addressing substance use disorders by providing equipment and services that would enhance treatment and recovery of people with substance use disorders.
“It was based on guided reports of the 2019 ECOWAS Empirical Survey on Substance Use Treatment in member states and the National Drug Use Survey conducted ” He added.
