The Edo State Government has revealed that it spent N1bn on dialysis machines and ventilators in its continued efforts to contain COVID-19 in the state.
This was announced by Philip Shaibu, deputy Governor of Edo State while giving a breakdown of how the state was responding to the viral outbreak.
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There had been a social media backlash when the state announced that it had spent N1bn so far in the fight against COVID-19.
Shaibu who is also the chairman of the state COVID-19 response team said parts of the funds was also spent on isolation centres, personal protective equipment, and palliatives as well as 32 ventilators and six dialysis machines.
“The over N1 billion that is becoming a controversy is crazy because, for instance, we have two new isolation centres that have been built, we have a 30-bed new isolation centre in Stella Obasanjo [Hospital]”.
“We have a 12-bed isolation centre in Auchi, 12 female and 12 male, making a total of 24. The entire Stella Obasanjo Hospital now, that used to be 168-bed facility is bring converted, as we speak, to a 400-bed facility, which will be also a holding centre and an isolation centre.
“Beyond that, equipment, ventilators, presently have become the hottest cake in terms of medical equipment in the entire country beyond PPEs. We procured recently, within this period, a total of 32 ventilators.”
“When you quantify the amount of the cost of a ventilator, an average of N8 million, you would know the cost of that.”
He said during a live television interview.
Shaibu said further that dialysis machines had to be procured to deal with renal issues that may arise from Covid-19 complications.
We also procured dialysis machines because when we were investigating this particular ailment, we discovered that you can get to a state where you’d need dialysis because of kidney failure and other renal problems,” he added.
“So, we also procured six dialysis machines for the new facility, we also procured two new mobile x-ray machines for this new facility. When you check from the angle of this equipment alone, you have over N600 million.
“We are not talking about the facility itself, the structure itself. Don’t forget we have a brand new isolation centre in Stella Obasanjo, which was an expansion of the old one.
“We had one existing one that had a 24-bed ICU facility that we were supposed to use for the Edo 2020 national sports festival, but because of the pandemic, we decided to build a new one, which is a 30-bed one. That infrastructure was built in 12 days.
“It is amazing when you see what is there; I just cut the tape on behalf of the governor on Tuesday. When you quantify only medical equipment, the PPEs, you know the cost of this.
“We procured over 10,000 PPEs. We have procured a lot of face masks, N91, N3, and all the necessary medical protective kits.
“Beyond that, we have also invested in palliatives, with the first phase of palliatives for our people took place last two weeks, and the second phase is about to kick start from this week.
“When you quantify those costs, you’d agree with me that a billion is already too small for what I said.”