Edo 200 bed hospital ready this year, says Oshiomhole

• Lauds executive-legislative cooperation

Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole Tuesday assured the people of the state that the Ultra Modern Central Hospital in Benin City, currently under construction would be completed and ready for use before the end of 2015.

   He said the project had got to the advance stage because of the collaboration he has got from the legislative arm of the government without which he said it would have been difficult for the project to get to the level it has got to.

   The Governor stated this when he visited the construction site to ascertain the level of work done so far.

Speaking briefly after the inspection, Governor Oshiomhole said, “the important thing is that going round, the people who are passing by don’t know how much work that is going on inside and as you can see, about 300 persons are working here virtually 7 days in a week.

“The whole idea is to see that we don’t compromise quality and that we achieve both quality and speed because our people are in a hurry to be able to use this facility.

“From what I see here, the quality is very okay. I think overall, there is no question that we have a first-class hospital under construction and our people will be happy that at the end, we have come up with the best hospital in the country by the time it is completed.

“Indeed all other things been equal, we will have facilities here that we will be able to say this is the best hospital in the country. There are two other things you need to achieve that good standard; first you need state of the art equipment and then employ the finest brains to man those equipment and having invested as much as we are doing, we cannot compromise on the human element”.

He said, “I am very confident that our people will be proud of what they are going to find”.

 Speaking on the second wing of the Hospital building that suffered a collapse sometimes ago, the Governor expressed satisfaction with the redesign and present state saying the initial setback was a blessing in disguise.

Oshiomhole said, “those who thought that the setback will be the end of this project, I am sure they will be shocked to find that our people have taken advantage of that unfortunate incident to further improve on the quality because technology changes everyday and we have modified the design to reflect the current technology in the hospital sector.

   “I am happy and ask you the project supervisor to sustain the progress so as to be able to commission the entire hospital this year”, he said.

    Governor Oshiomhole also used the occasion to commend the leadership of Edo State House of Assembly for the cordial Executive-Legislative relationship which he says led to the possibility of embarking on a project of such magnitude.

   Oshiomhole said, “ I asked you the Speaker, Deputy Speaker and other Members to come so you can also reconcile what we are doing with what you have appropriated to us for this project with what is on ground because we can give you report about what we are doing and how far we have gone but it is all report on paper and I know if you hadn’t made provision for the project, I can have all the dreams on earth but am not going to have this edifice.

“So for your cooperation in helping to provide the legislative backing, you can see the result of your legislative efforts and I want to appreciate you and your colleagues for recognising whether in the legislative or executive branch, we share a common passion to see that our people get the best and that the public get value for money”, he stressed.

   Reacting, the Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly, Uyi Igbe expressed satisfaction with the quality and level of work done and also appreciated the governor for putting to judicious and appropriate use, the money earmarked for such projects and assured him of further assistance and cooperation by the House of Assembly.

   He said, “I am very impressed with the quality of work done. While inside we saw a very good job done and I’m very proud to have been a part of this project.

“Now that we have seen where the money we appropriated is going, we will see to it that we continue to appropriate for the development of Edo people. This is a very good example of the legislature working in synergy with the Executive”, he said.

Earlier, the Project Manager expressed the determination towards completing the first phase of 200-bed of the Accident and Emergency Ward within the next two months while promising to complete the entire project by the end of 2015.