UCH honours expert for repairing five faulty hospital elevators

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The management of the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, has honoured a technical expert, Mr Lekan Baderin, for repairing five dysfunctional lifts being used by staff, patients and categories of people visiting the hospital, free of charge.

Speaking while presenting an award to recognise the selfless service and contribution of Baderin to the growth of the hospital at the Emeritus Theophilus Ogunlesi Hall, Ibadan, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of UCH, Professor Jesse Otegbayo, sought the intervention of eminent Nigerians, corporate bodies and other relevant stakeholders to enhance the effective medical services of the hospital.

He recalled that “there were some projects executed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the UCH. Among them were five lifts installed. They started working, but not long after, all five lifts stopped working.

Otegbayo stated: “We invited the company that installed them. Their charges were exorbitant. We wanted to effect a maintenance agreement with them. They gave us an exorbitant price, and we were trying to negotiate.

“They abandoned us, and the lifts were just there, not functioning. We were wondering to go and look for one technical partner to help us.

How can we install five lifts, and none of them would be working, and the people who installed them refused to come and repair them for us? They were giving us quotations that were so monumental.

Along the line, I don’t know how my people got to know him. They told me that there was one man who said he would repair them and that he had actually inspected them; that he said all the faults were minor. They told me that he would even repair the lifts at no cost to us. That is a miracle.

“It didn’t end there. He also told us that he would train five of our staff to repair and maintain the lifts at no cost to UCH. Which miracle can be more than that? That is an instant miracle.

“I really appreciate you. It is only God that can reward you because not many people are like you. You came instantly and did the repair wholeheartedly. Now the lifts are working. That is why the management and staff and students of UCH consider you deserving of this award, “the CMD remarked.

However, the awardee, Mr Lekan Baderin, who is the Chief Technical Officer (CTO), of RonArch Consulting Limited, Abuja, disclosed that he was concerned about the stress and agony people go through by making use of the staircases as a result of the dysfunctional lifts.

He said, “incidentally, I have nothing to do with UCH. When I came here, I saw patients being carried up, and after I was done with what I came for, I decided to go and check the elevators; my staff told me there was practically nothing wrong with the elevators. Virtually if anything is wrong, all they need to do is not worth 500 dollars, and the elevators will work.

“If we say we are presenting N500 plus our time, it will take time before it is approved because it has to pass from one table to another, it will take days, and some people will still be suffering going upstairs, so what is that money compared to lives? So, we just decided to resolve the problem instantly. There is no paperwork, and the elevators have been working since that day.

“They are all brand new elevators, and the people in charge didn’t know what to do when they developed some small issues; they were not trained, and those who installed the elevators didn’t give them any training. They left it, and some people are scared it’s a machine they don’t know where to torch so it won’t be damaged further.

“That is why we have decided to train them to be able to handle some small issues and if the have any major problems they can call us. We want to ensure that people who are sick are being moved from up to down without any stress, “Baderin posited.

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