Total  Upstream Com
pany in Nigeria (TUCN) has commissioned the Special Baby Care Unit (SBCU) building donated to the Bayelsa State-owned, Niger Delta University Teaching Hospital (NDUTH), Okolobiri with the state of the arts equipment.
“The works carried out in the unit, include construction of the building and gas chambers; supply and installation of medical equipment, comprising 34 single hospital beds, with swivel shelf drawer, 14 single baby beds and incubators.
Others are resuscitation  tables, blood gas analyzer, electrophoresis automatic analyzer, fetal pulse co traction monitors, hematology analyzer, examination Lamos, and dressing trolley among others”.
Speaking at the commissioning ceremony, the Deputy Managing Director, Deep Water District, Mr Charles Ngoka described the gesture a honest effort by his company in the reduction of infant mortality in Bayelsa State.
According to Mr Ngoka, the entire project cost the company “about N203 million, saying that TUCN and its partner expect that the unit would be adequately maintained and put to use”.
He said, the project which was completed in 2012, would have been commissioned before now but the equipment and installation was delayed due to the flooding of that year, and thanked both the contractor for excellent job,
In his speech, the Group General Manager, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS) Mr Fidel Pepple, who was represented by an official of the firm, said his firm was in charge of managing the investments of the Federal Government on the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry to ensure good returns on invested capital.
“We believe that our investments should not be in the nuts and bolts of the industry but also in the people.”, he stressed.
According to him, its responsibility includes assisting government to provide healthcare delivery, hence NAPIMS was pleased with TOTAL on the provision of the project “because it holds very good prospect for the development of Nigeria’s health sector.
Responding, the Chief Medical Director of the university, Dr Onyaye Kunle-Olowu said that Total  in the past four years had exhibited an “unparalleled commitment to corporate responsibility to the institution by donating two ambulances earlier, and now the construction and equipping of the special care baby unit with a dedicated laboratory and mother’s room.”
The medical director, while commending the efforts of  TOTAL, called on other multi national firms to come to the aids of the young institution in area of staff training, research, equipping as well as infrastructural development as to enable “deliver excellent medical care to the society”.