In its bid to ensure enough funding and infrastructure, the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan will launch a foundation in November to ensure it meets the needs of its increasing clientele.
The hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Professor Abiodun Otegbayo made the disclosure when he conducted Mr Oluwatoyin Okeowo, expected to chair the foundation, alongside some members of the hospital’s management round the hospital’s facility.
The facility tour was for Mr Okeowo to have a first-hand knowledge of the state of the hospital and what is required to restore the hospital’s lost glory.
Professor Otegbayo said the Federal Government alone could not fund healthcare services and as such the hospital would be soliciting funds through the foundation from individuals, philanthropists and organisations to move forward.
He declared “This is a foundation that we expect to run as long as the hospital exists so that UCH will return to its old glory and even do much more. What we need is in billions of naira; materials are also required to move UCH forward.”
Mr Okeowo, a financial expert and representative of Toyota in Nigeria, said that it was unfortunate that most the areas that he had visited in the hospital were in a very poor state of repairs.
He said “It is going to be a lot of work but I know that we are going to achieve a lot. I believe it is an opportunity for us to serve and contribute our own quota towards the development of humanity and that is what we intend to achieve.”
Meanwhile, Professor Otegbayo, while commissioning a new office for the hospital’s special duties unit, said the unit would also be catering for the hospital’s needs such as fund raising, international relations and grants.
The unit, which he said is directly under his office, will cater for issues in the hospital that are not in other departments to further improve the functionality of the hospital.
Head of the special duties unit, Professor Moji Atalabi, said the units with subunits would also be catering for staff welfare, aesthetics of the hospital, patient customer care and security among other things.