The management of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), says it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) for the construction of a N1.3 billion physical rehabilitation centre.
Prof. Ahmed Ahidjo, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, who disclosed this to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Maiduguri, said that the centre would provide clinical, rehabilitation and support services as well as produce orthopaedic devices for the physically challenged persons.
He explained that the project would be executed with the support of the ICRC, adding that work was expected to commence in May.
“The hospital’s management has signed MoU with the ICRC for the construction of a Physical Rehabilitation center.
“The organisation is contributing about 3.6 million US dollars, equivalent to about N1.3 billion,” he said.
According to him, the Presidential Committee on North-East Initiative (PCNI) also planned to construct a burn center, to cater for persons suffering from fire burns.
Ahidjo said that the hospital had initiated comprehensive development projects to address challenges posed by the insurgency and demystify its operations, to meet the health needs of the growing population.
He explained that the focus was to improve the hospital’s bed capacity; personnel and their skills, provide facilities and equipment as well as improvement of staff welfare, to enhance quality health care delivery.
The chief medical director noted that the hospital’s primary objective was to offer tertiary healthcare services to people in the North East and neighboring states as well as Chad, Cameroon and Niger Republics.
Ahidjo said: “We have plans to move the hospital to about 1,000 bed-capacity; right now, we are constructing a trauma center which is about 130 bed-capacity.
“We planned to extend the kidney centre because it has no admission or clinic facilities, we want to upgrade it to a 70-bed admission capacity and that will give us about 200 beds.
“We also have plans to build a new and befitting child institute to cater for surgical and medical needs of the child; we are bringing in a new centre into the hospital to manage children diseases in one place.
”The centre will have between 130 and 150-bed capacity, this will give us about 350 additional beds.
“Because of the ageing population and increased incidents of stroke in the society; we planned to build a new stroke centre to cater for the old age- geriatrics, and patients suffering from stroke, on the average that will give us another 150 beds.”
On staff development programme, Ahidjo said the hospital had adopted proactive measures to build the capacity of its personnel, to enable them to discharge their duties effectively.
He revealed that the hospital had signed an exchange agreement with the South-East University Teaching Hospital, China for training of its personnel.
The chief medical director lauded the Federal Government over its support and called for approved recruitment of new personnel in the hospital, to facilitate effective management of the various departments of the facility.
Ahidjo commended the ICRC and PCNI over their supports and called on wealthy individuals in the society to emulate the gesture and support the hospital so as to execute viable projects.
The hospital was inaugurated on July 23, 1983; by late President Shehu Shagari, as the pioneer teaching hospital in the North East region.
It has over 3,000 staff including 200 specialist doctors, 400 physicians, 800 nurses and other cadre of staff; it operates outreach centres at Madagali, Banki, Potiskum and Federal Secretariat, Maiduguri. (NAN)
