COVID-19: Don Wants UPTH To Diversify, Produce Consumables

Following the negative social and economic impacts created by the Coronavirus pandemic globally, a retired consultant and gynaecologist, Pof Nimi Briggs has urged the management of University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) to diversity it’s economic baseby producingmedical consumables for hospitals.
Briggs also said UPTH should not only be training doctors, nurses and other medical technicians, but collaborate with the university under the Triple Helix model that the National Universities Commission (NUC) was currently promoting, and go into the manufacture of hospital beds, linen, surgical instruments as much as possible.
He spoke while delivering a keynote address at UPTH, titled, “Great expectations” during the launching of the hospital’s five-year “Strategic Plan Implementation Workshop and Roll Out” organised by the management.
The former vice chancellor, University of Port Harcourt, noted that UPTH since its inception in 1980 had produced 3,088 medical doctors, 150 dental surgeons,2,800 specialists, and 708 nurses.
Briggs noted that UPTH as a flagship hospital should not only be able to train high quality professionals to run healthcare services, but also produce a good number of what it needs, not only oxygen, but other gases such as consumables, sterilising agents, surgical masks, gowns, swabs, and others.
He noted over 60percent of consultant staff in UPTH as well as those in specialist hospitals and clinics in Rivers and Bayelsa states, including the consultants at the newly established Rivers State University Teaching Hospital (RSUTH) and Bayelsa Medical University in Yenagoa received clinical teaching at some point in their trainings at the UPTH.
The don insisted that over 6,000 House officers have completed their pre-registration training at the hospital.
He also urged the hospital to be self-sufficient in every way possible, rather than depend on imported medical items.
“UPTH should be a beehive of activities for meaningful research, which will impact the local community appropriately”, he said.
The renownedgynaecologist noted that by launching its five-year strategic plan, the hospital should reset its physical structures, available equipment and quality of administration to function at optimum level.
He appealed to the management to create a cordial working relationship between the employer and the employees to drive its goals.
“These actions serve as opiates that spur frontline health workers to do the risky and demanding work that they do”, he said.
“Not remunerating the healthcare worker as and when due, not providing a hospitable environment for his or her work, not providing him or her with the required tools and materials, and then, sacking him or her when he or her complains is immoral and should be condemned”, he said.
The five-year strategic plan, he said would reposition the hospital to achieve mandates and enhance healthcare delivery service to the society.

By: Chinedu Wosu