The Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike yesterday declared the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital as the best such medical facility in Nigeria.

According to Wike, the declaration was due to the huge investment his administration has made in strengthening the capacity of the specialist hospital in the training of personnel, research, and medical innovations.

The governor, who spoke at the inauguration of the twin buildings housing the Faculty of Basic Clinical Sciences and the Faculty of Clinical Sciences, by the Chairman of Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, Prof. Abba Hassan in Port Harcourt yesterday said: “Go to the University Teaching Hospital, you have the best of equipment you can talk about. I don’t see any teaching hospital in this country today that can compare with what we have at Rivers State University Teaching Hospital.”

Governor Wike noted the several other separate health services providing facilities that are integrated into the teaching hospital for holistic service delivery.

A statement in Port Harcourt yesterday by Wike’s media aide, Kelvin Ebiri said the governor enthused that both the medical personnel and the students have the best of medical equipment that would expose them to contemporary medical practice.
The governor informed that soon the Renal Centre and the hostel for medical house officers that have been completed would soon be inaugurated.

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With such huge investment made, the statement said, Governor Wike charged the teachers and students to take their work and studies seriously so that there will be sustained excellence in the health sector.

He said: “We are commissioning the Renal Centre and the house officers’ hostel which will be completed and furnished soon. But it beats my imagination that a teaching hospital has no Renal Centre. Go and see the Mother and Child Hospital; the gynaecology and paediatric sections. Those of you who will be using the teaching hospital for your learning, you are getting the best equipment for your practical. What you see overseas is what you are seeing here.

“So, you must count yourselves to be lucky that you came at a time you won’t say we don’t have a laboratory. You have everything now. So, there will be no excuse from you. All you need to do is to concentrate.”

Governor Wike reassured that he would not leave office without completing projects his administration has awarded, adding that but should any be left without being inaugurated, he was confident that his successor will, in the spirit of continuity, complete them for inauguration.

“I will not leave any project unfinished. I will make sure all the projects we have started are finished. If they are not finished, maybe at 90 or 95% completion, when my successor, Siminalaye Fubara and Prof. Ngozi Ordu, come, they should use them for their first one hundred days in office projects and commission them.

“This is because they are part of what we are doing. When I say my successor, you know they will win. You know they will win because our report card is there to show what we have done. We are in the period of operation to show your report card,” he said.

The governor directed the Commissioner for Special Projects to visit the site for building of hostels for medical students of the Rivers State University to assess what was required to complete the project in the next two months.

He also insisted that the Pathology Department of the university should be ready for inauguration in January 2023.

Performing the inauguration, Chairman of Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN), Prof. Abba Hassan noted the audacity of Governor Wike to sustain regular training of over 300 medical and other auxiliary staff.

These, he said, are also paid regularly higher than any government, including the federal government.

He said: “Governor Wike has invested satisfactorily in this entire tripod starting with the development of manpower in the health sector, giving a foundation to sustain the investment in the infrastructure and equipment procurement.