Tragedy Looms As UCH Tackles Oyo Govt Over COVID-19 Management
The Oyo State Government led by Engr. Seyi Makinde has been reportedly accused of not providing any financial support to the University College Hospital, UCH Ibadan in the fight against the ravaging Coronavirus pandemic.
A source in the hospital, who pleaded anonymity, revealed this to reporters, also revealed that the state government brought on board UCH staff to work at the isolation centers illegally.
According to the source, “It is unfortunate that since the problem started UCH has not received any help form the governor of Oyo State. it got to a point that we had to call on individuals to help us, some of them have responded, a businessman gave us N20 million naira, IBEDC gave us 10 million another person gave us 1 million and two other people gave us 50,000 and 100,000, another individual is renovating our 18-bed MDR centre a nd that is all we have received yet we are battling a disease that requires a lot of funding from the government.
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“But the most unfortunate thing is that if you compare UCH and LUTH, you will see that Lagos State is fully funding and supporting LUTH. As soon as the situation broke out Lagos State built a 60 bed isolation center for LUTH within two weeks.”
The source stressed that the Lagos State government is fully collaborating with LUTH while the government of Oyo State is neither collaborating with UCH nor supporting them.
“The most unfortunate thing is that UCH pays over one hundred million naira as tax to the Oyo State government monthly yet at a period like this the government is not rendering any assistance to the hospital.”
According to the source, “rather than support the hospital what the government does on a daily basis is to publicize to the public things that did not happen within UCH.”
“The government recently said 44 per cent of the COVID-19 cases in Oyo State is from UCH “but as far as the management knows, only four people tested positive among the staff of the hospital.
“The President of the Association of Resident Doctors, Dr. Dayo Williams that the state government announced tested positive for COVID-19 is not even a patient at all because after the result was announced, there were suspicions that the result is incorrect and when he was tested again in less than 24 hours after the first test, the result came back negative. Yet the government still claims he was also infected with the virus because they did not make any announcement to explain that the initial result they announced was incorrect.”
While explaining how the state government is painting the hospital bad, the source cited the example of the first recorded death from COVID-19 in the state.
“When the governor announced the first death, hr was quick to announce that the person died in UCH but he did not disclose that they were the one who brought that patient to UCH.
“Since yesterday when the patient died,” the source continued, “the government is yet to make any arrangement for consummables and procedures for how the dead body will be carried away for burial despite the donations they have received from the public.”
The source also revealed that while UCH was on a lockdown, the government brought some of UCH staff to work with them illegally but as soon as the hospital announced that staff should resume to work following the directive of the federal government, it became a problem for the state government.
“It was then that the state government knew that they needed to follow due process to employ the service of our staff because they don’t have the personnel to fight COVID-19.”
The source added that “when the commissioner for health visited UCH on Wednesday, which was the first time since the outbreak of the virus, the CMD told him that if any staff of UCH is currently working with the state government that person is on his own because the management did not release them and the management won’t take it lightly if any of their staffs contract the disease from there.
The source added that the government brought a letter on the 20th of April seeking for 96 health professionals and as of today the management of UCH is yet to respond but the news is all over the place that the hospital is collaborating with the government which is false.
He added that if the government is really serious about collaborating with UCH, the kind of propaganda flying about against the hospital won’t exist.
The source also revealed that if the governor does not desist from spreading false claims about the hospital in his press conferences, the management may refuse to collaborate with the government.
