Despite the huge amount of money released by the President, Muhammadu Buhari, and huge donations made by several individuals and corporate organisations, the University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan, Oyo State has written an open letter to groups and associations soliciting for funds to equip the hospital’s isolation center.
The President had announced the release of 15bn, corporate organizations and individuals, including UBA who gave N5bn, Femi Otedola who gave N1bn, Abdul Samad Rabiu N1.3bn, Dangote N200m, NNPC and its partners N11bn, Atiku N50m among many others.
Reports validly claim that the number of cases in Oyo State had risen to seven on Saturday, while the state governor, Seyi Makinde, on Saturday morning tweeted that “84 Persons of Interest have been identified, and contact tracing and collection of samples have commenced.”
The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Prof Jesse Otegbayo, in the open letter titled, ‘To whom it may concern’, highlighted the items needed by the hospital and expressed hope that support will be offered.
The letter, reads;
“As part of the plans to scale up our ability to respond credibly to the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospital has commenced plans to scale-up its initial four-bed isolation unit to an 18-bed facility. Due to the highly infectious nature of the organism, all requests are in multiple numbers in order to ensure that cross infection is limited as much as possible.
“To this end, we hereby solicit funds to achieve the following: pipeline oxygen with at least 20 patient points with humidifier, respiratory ventilators, personal protective equipment (apparel), suction machines, nebulizers, bacterial and viral filters, medical consumables, mobile x-ray machine, oxygen concentrators, pulse oximeters and nurse/doctor’s day.
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“We are expectant that in the spirit of social responsibility, well-meaning groups/associations, etc., will support the initiative as deemed fit.”