Ekiti State Government has said it has no plans to sell or privatize any part of the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital(EKSUTH) in Ado-Ekiti.
A statement from the State Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Mr Tayo Ekundayo in Ado Ekiti said contrary to a report on the social media what the government plans to do was to upgrade obsolete facilities and equipment in the hospital’s laboratories as well as Radiology and X-Ray departments through a build, operate and transfer (BOT) arrangement under which a sum of $5.5million would be invested in the provision of state of the art laboratory and radiology equipment .
According to him about 12 multi national companies with proven track records in the specialized field have already signified interest in partnering the state government to upgrade facilities in the University’s laboratories, radiology and X-ray departments in a transparent process that was being observed by the International Finance Corporation, a subsidiary of the World Bank.
The Commissioner noted that most of the tests that were presently performed manually in EKSUTH would be done digitally using state of the art equipment when the programme comes on stream.
He said after the installation of the equipments at the hospital, complex tests such as Magnetic Resonance Imagery (MRI),Fluoroscopy and angiography that enables doctors to visualize the inside of a patient’s blood vessels would now be carried out at EKSUTH .
While assuring staff of the hospital that their jobs were secured, the Commissioner said training of staff on the new equipment was key to the sustenance of the programme after the expiration of the proposed eight to twelve year agreement with the technical partners.
Ekundayo also assured that government remained focussed in its determination to make healthcare delivery affordable, available and assesible stressing that the cost of tests at the hospital would not go beyond the reach of ordinary patients after the programme commences but would instead go down.