UCH commissions N500m snake bite centre, PHC unit in Sepeteri

The University College Hospital UCH Comprehensive Health Centre, Sepeteri, Oke Ogun area of Oyo State built at the cost of N500 million has been commissioned.

The Comprehensive Health Centre which was dedicated to common ailments in Oke Ogun area also has an x-ray unit and staff quarters. The UCH annex was sited in Sepeteri in 1987 but could not be completed for full-fledged use due to the paucity of funds until Hosea Ayoola Agboola, the senate’s deputy-whip, facilitated the completion.

The multimillion naira remodelled and rehabilitated hospital complex, which was part of the lawmaker’s constituency projects for Oyo North Senatorial District, was commissioned by a representative of David Mark, the senate president, on Thursday.

In his address to the commissioning ceremony, the Senate President congratulated Agboola for resuscitating the dreams of the federal government and for giving the people of Sepeteri and indeed Oke-Ogun a new lease of life that they would enjoy consequent upon the commissioning of the new facility comparable to any standard general hospital anywhere in the country.

Mark also encouraged other senators to emulate Agboola in delivering true dividend of democracy to the people who voted them into office.

Also speaking at the commissioning, Tope Alonge, a professor and the CMD of the UCH, expressed joy that the dream of resuscitating the health centre became a reality due to commitment of Agboola, and Sepeteri indigenes like Bamidele Dada, former agriculture minister and  Dibu Ojerinde, a professor and JAMB registrar, among other stakeholders.

Alonge noted that the centre would greatly improve access to quality healthcare for residents in the entire Oke-Ogun area, thereby improving the quality of life for them.

He recalled that the journey to the remodelled hospital began in 2005 when he was working on the UCH committee on telemedicine which is aimed at offering medical care for patients who are at far distances through the instrument of television technology. He called on indigenes and other stakeholders to sustain their commitment to the project for continued success.

Agboola said he decided to adopt the centre as his constituency project for the year 2013 after assessing the huge impact it would make on residents of the entire Oke-Ogun area. The lawmaker pointed out that he succeeded in putting the project in the last year appropriation because it was the most important project he believed he could deliver to his constituency at this time.

Agboola also lauded the management of UCH for supervising the project as well as indigenes and other stakeholders.

REMI FEYISIPO