The Chief Medical Director of the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, UCTH, Prof. Ikpeme A. Ikpeme, has called on management and staff of the hospital to ensure that the new policy of maximum sanitation standard is maintained by everyone in and around the hospital premises. Prof. Ikpeme  who mobilised management and staff to carry out general sanitation exercise in the hospital joined in cleaning offices, clearing filthy garbage and ditches.
The CMD noted that a clean environment and sanitation standards were necessary for health practice as management and staff of UCTH must practise and maintain the same from their immediate office environment.
“All windows, blinds, ceiling fans, office space, walkways and lobby must be kept clean. Garbage should be properly disposed, and surrounding ditches and drainages must be kept clean”, said the CMD
The new CMD said “we need to change the wrong public perception about our hospital. Implementing clean environment and sanitation standards is one of the things we can achieve within the immediate. In doing that, we have to ensure there is regular water flow from every supply point within the hospital premises. To have regular water, we must have Power supply as well. So these are some of the things we are doing with the cooperation of the staff,” he told newsmen.
According to him, the sanitation exercise will be monthly in UCTH until such a time, and the management would not have to declare a monthly sanitation day. The CMD on the same day left the main premises of UCTH to pay an inspection visit to a Community Health Centre in Okoyong, Odukpani Local Government Area, owned by UCTH, about 60kms from Calabar. A visit to the health centre revealed a lot of dilapidated facilities and infrastructure in the outstation as well as the unkempt environ- ment with overgrown weeds and wild grasses.

Friday Nwagbara, Calabar