The Seyi Makinde led Oyo State Government is yet to provide any financial support to the University College Hospital, UCH Ibadan in the fight against COVID-19.
In ts efforts to contain the spread of the virus, state government did not partner with the hospital. Rather, partnered with the virology department of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, located within the premises of the UCH but is under the governance of the University of Ibadan. Through funding, the state has turned its laboratory to a test centre.
OYOINSIGHT.COM recalls that UCH has recorded four cases – the Chief Medical Director, Chairman of the Governing Board, Provost, College of Medicine and his deputy. Till they tested negative, the quartet self-isolated and received treatment till they tested negative again.
This was revealed to OYOINSIGHT.COM by a source in the hospital.
The source, who pleaded anonymity, 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 N1 million and two other people gave us N50,000 and N100,000, another individual is renovating our 18-bed MDR centre and that is all we have received yet we are battling a disease that requires a lot of funding from the government.
“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 reminded OYOINSIGHT.COM 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 the person is on his own because the management did not release them and the management won’t take it lightly if any of their staff 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.
The source told OYOINSIGHT.COM that both the hospital and “the state should have worked together in ways that will see the hospital strengthened to handle confirmed cases just as it happened in Lagos where the Lagos State Government quickly built a 60-bed isolation centre at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba with other support for effective management.”
”Rather,” the source said, “UCH is being projected as incompetent and a centre of infection by the state government. UCH is being projected as the hospital handling all the cases in Oyo State which is incorrect.”
Only recently, the State’s COVID-19 vice-chairman, Professor Alonge. while briefing Governor’s Office correspondents on Wednesday was quoted as saying that the state COVID-19 Task-force will support the UCH Task Force in order to halt the spread of the pandemic among the staff of the College who would thereafter associate with members of their various communities leading to more people contracting the virus.
This was just as he further debunked a report making the round that the state COVID-19 task force failed to involved medical practitioners in its fight against the novel virus.
