Tina Amanda
The Chief Medical Director, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital UPTH, Professor Henry Ugboma, has said Politics and personal grudges should not be brought into a hospital’s affairs as it may cause morbidity and mortality of those who needs medical attention.
Professor Ugboma who stated this to journalist while reacting to the recent reports about death of fourteen babies in its incubator due to power outage, maintained that hospital is a place to save lives and not to destroy lives.
He described the report as unfounded without prove and which is capable of painting the image of the country and the hospital in bad light to the outside world, noting that UPTH has the most trained doctors and experts in all the medical fields.
The Chief Medical Director, however, urged journalists to always verify their reports and information before sending it out for public consumption.
“A hospital is meant to save lives. When people report about a hospital, it should be geared towards saving lives and not destroying lives. Journalism should be practiced in such a way that it’s fact-based and if any information must be released, it must be verified when it is hospital-related.
“If you keep sending negative and false information, it may lead to the death of our citizens, it means it will scare away those who are supposed to come use the facility. UPTH has all the experts in whatever field, the hospital trained most of the doctors working in the states around us and in Port Harcourt, it is a referral center.
“And that is why department like radiology is well equipped and can not be measured to any other department in the whole country. When reports are made without verifying, the person in question may want to make news, but in making that news, lives are destroyed because there are patients that can not afford fees charge outside this Government facility.
“Politics should not be brought into what concerns a hospital, personal grudges, scores should not be settled in the hospital or you have one or two experiences you are not satisfied with, do not use it to pull down the facility. In doing that, it affects the workforce. When we have qualified pediatricians, how will sit down and watch fourteen babies die?”.
He urged people to approach the management of UPTH should they have experiences they do not like, rather than peddle false rumour capable of destroying the country and the state
He further called on relevant authorities, corporate organizations, stakeholders and well meaning Nigerians, to support the hospital as it has become quite expensive noting that the hospital spends about about thirty (30,000, 000) million naira for the purchase of diesel monthly, consumables, just as he said the hospital does not get support from the Rivers State government.
“Federal government can not do everything, we need alot. Before the transformer had issue, we used an average of two trucks monthly which amounts to 30 million naira. Everyone knows the issue of diesel in the country right right.
“Is it the money that our poor population pay we will use to be buying diesel all the time? It is expensive to run a hospital. The Rivers State government does not give us support. It cares for the state’s facilities but ignores this one. Meanwhile, we manage everybody in the state. If they have issues, they refer them to us to manage, we train their medical students and yet not a Kobo is giving to us.
“Individuals can help us, when they come to the hospital and take care of the indigent, we have been having assistance but we need more”.
