Dapo Abiodun to inaugurate renovated 250-bed Oke-Mosan hospital in December

Dapo Abiodun, governor of Ogun, says the renovated 250-bed medical centre of excellence in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, the state capital, will be inaugurated in December.

Speaking on Monday while inspecting the facility, Abiodun said it would be managed by the Abuja Medical Centre of Excellence which has the King’s College Hospital as one of its international partners.

He said the hospital will be a ‘spoke’ for the Abuja Medical Centre of Excellence, adding that the Ogun State Medical Centre of Excellence will be everybody’s first bus stop.

“We are looking forward to the completion of this project. You can see the exterior is looking very nice, we’ve started landscaping, they’ve built an entrance canopy and the gate, oxygen equipment are working,” the governor said.

“I have told them to double up on manpower so that we commence operations in the next two to three weeks.

“My intention is to come by the grace of God to commission this project sometime in December. This will be one of our Christmas presents to Ogun state.

“This facility was left with a lot of civil engineering gaps – I mean a lot, a lot of structural engineering gaps, a lot of electrical engineering gaps, almost nil electrical engineering.

“The Abuja Medical Center of Excellence has agreed in principle that if indeed this facility is completed in line with what we planned to, the way we’ve conceived it, if indeed it is going to be run by Healthshare, that they will partner with this facility.

“The Abuja Medical Center of Excellence has the King’s College Hospital as one of the hospitals internationally and others who are working with them in partnership.”

The governor said the hospital would help reduce medical tourism to the barest minimum.

“We know how much Nigerians spend on medical tourism. We know how many instances people are rushed from Ogun state to Lagos hospitals, from Abeokuta to Babcock to Olabisi Onabanjo Teaching Hospital, and when that case is beyond them, they now take them to Lagos,” he said.

“By the time this hospital is commissioned, all that will stop. You can imagine the number of traffic of patients coming from the hinterland, coming from Oyo, Osun and Ekiti states.

“They have to pass through Ogun state before they get to Lagos. This will be a more convenient location for them to come.”

Biodun said his administration looked round for partners through its public-private partnership (PPP) office and signed a memorandum of understanding with Healthshare to ensure that the facility is properly run.

“We decided that the best way to run this hospital the way it should be, the best way this hospital will be of use and would be utilised to render the quality of service and care for which it is intended is to find a partner to work with the state,” he said.

“We began to look for partners, eventually, through our public-private partnership office. We identified one that is called Healthshare Services Limited, and sometime last year, we signed a memorandum of understanding with them and they were to finish this facility.”