Hope rises for patients as UBTH gets $500,000 ICU centre

Patients with life-threatening conditions can look for some relief, as the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Edo State, backed by the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) has inaugurated a 15-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for emergency care.

Speaking at the launch of the unit on Tuesday, Darlington Obaseki, the chief medical director of UBTH, said the project was part of the Nigeria LNG hospital-support programme geared towards ameliorating healthcare challenges of patients in critical conditions.

Obaseki, who said the initiative was a result of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed with NLNG, noted that it would complement the existing seven-bed ICU and cater for the hospital’s growing number of patients.

According to him, “We are one of the busiest hospitals in this country. Every week, we see close to 6,000 patients; each week, we admit about 450 patients and we see about 430 emergencies.

“This connotes that we are oversubscribed as a hospital, which is an indication of the quality of services we offer. Unfortunately, over the years, we have only a seven-bed ICU which is almost always oversubscribed.

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“So, when the opportunity came for us to benefit from this Nigeria LNG hospital- support programme and they asked us to identify a problem, we remembered that we needed to open up a space to accommodate more physically ill patients. Then we offered that we wanted our ICU to be upgraded and expanded. We are here today, thanks to the NLNG,” Obaseki said.

He noted that the ICU incorporates facilities such as anti-microbial epoxy coating, central monitoring system, oxygen alarming system, ventilators, infusion pumps among others.

Philip Mshelbila, managing director/CEO NLNG Limited, on his part, said the hospital- support programme was conceived in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic to assuage the envisaged pressure that medical institutions would experience in managing ill patients.

“A MoU between NLNG and each teaching hospital to set out the framework for delivery of the project was signed in Abuja on January 24, 2022. The programme consists of health intervention projects across 12 federal university teaching hospitals in six geopolitical zones of Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),” he said.

Mshelbila, who was represented by Andy Odeh, general manager, external relations and sustainable development, NLNG, said the approved cost was $500,000 per location and a total cost of $6 million for the entire programme.

“The projects in each of the institutions were jointly reviewed and aligned with the hospitals following thorough needs assessment to optimally deploy and utilise resources. For UBTH, the target is to achieve the remodeling and conversion of an existing building into a 15-bed ICU”, he added.