Akure community protests against conversion of Akure specialists hospital to UNIMED annex

TRADITIONAL rulers from Akure community, led by Deji-in-Council on Wednesday, protested against the plans of the state government to convert the State Specialist Hospital in Akure to an annex of the University of Medical Sciences (UNIMED) Teaching Hospital, situated in Ondo town.

The protesters who took their grievances to the State House of Assembly said the indigenes of the ancient town would resist any move by the state government to turn the Specialist Hospital in Akure to an annex of UNIMED.

Presenting the position of the Akure community at the House of Assembly, the Deji of Akure, Oba Aladetoyinbo Ogunlade Aladelusi, kicked against the development which he said would make the Specialist Hospital subservient to the one in any part of the State.

Oba Aladetoyinbo who was represented by Prof Segun Ojo expressed the fear that bill would relegate the hospital to the background and would not have access to emergency services.

According to the people, all the surgeons and consultants in the Specialist Hospital would be relocated out of Akure once the bill seeking to make all the Specialist Hospitals in the state including that of Akure become annex of the UNIMED Teaching Hospital.

They maintained that the move to turn the Akure Specialists Hospital to a subsidiary of the Teaching Hospital in Ondo would be a retrogressive step.

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The community said Akure remained the only State Government Headquarters of its ilk that has no resident tertiary health institution.

They said “making the hospital an annex of the UNIMED Hospital at Ondo would be unfair for the mass of the people because access to emergency services would be problematic in the circumstance.

“This is to say that making the State Hospital a subsidiary would take away the top level medical facilities, personnel, services and opportunities from the vast majority of Ondo State residents in Akure.

“Instead of making the Akure Specialist Hospital a subsidiary of the Teaching Hospital in Ondo, the people asked the government to establish a tertiary health facility that would take care of the people living in the state capital.”

However, the State Government while speaking through its Commissioner for Information, Mr Yemi Olowolabi, said the State government had tabled and settled the issue of the status of the Specialist Hospital in Akure with the traditional ruler of the town.

Olowolabi said the people have no reason to express fear of making the Specialist Hospital in Akure, a branch of UNIMED Teaching Hospital as all the facilities and medical staff would increase instead of reducing.

According to him, the Specialist Hospital in Akure belonged to the government and could convert it to good use for the people of the town and the people of the State.

The state governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, had proposed a bill that would make the Specialist Hospital and Mother and Child Hospitals in Akure and Ondo annexes of the UNIMED Teaching Hospital.