FMC secures N2.6bn land for Medicine varsity, teaching hospital

Plans have reached an advanced stage to upgrade the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Abeokuta, Ogun State to a teaching hospital.

Its Medical Director, Prof Adewale Musa-Olomu, who spoke to journalists yesterday said the hospital’s management had almost completed arrangements with an international private business partner to begin the construction of what he described as a first class teaching hospital.

He disclosed that Governor Ibikunle Amosun had already allocated 170 hectares of land free of charge for the project, saying the land was acquired at a cost of N2.6 billon.

He described Amosun’s gesture as rare, unprecedented and terribly enormous, adding that when completed, it would have capacity to train students in medicine and Allied Sciences.

He spoke while fielding questions from journalists as part of activities marking his 100 days in office.

“The land is for development into a University of Medicine and School of Preliminary Studies in fulfillment of part of the requirements for the upgrading of the centre to a Teaching Hospital,” he said.

Meanwhile, Former Deputy Senate President, Ibrahim Nasiru Mantu, has decried the exiting of medical doctors from Nigeria to foreign countries, particularly those from the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), which he said he struggled to bring to the people of Plateau State when he was in the Senate.

Mantu stated that the idea of establishing medical centres of excellence in each of the six geo-political zones of the country is for the people to have access to high profile healthcare delivery service that the people travel abroad to access.

The hospitals, he reasoned, are to be equipped with the most modern medical equipment and the best hands in the practice of medicine.

He spoke yesterday as chairman of JUTH’s 2017 annual general meeting of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) in Jos.

He lamented the sad stories and state of affairs in JUTH, which he said, saddened him and dampened his spirit, adding that the federal and state governments should intervene to save the hospital.