Tasks Hospital on Judicious Use of Items
By Demola Akinyemi
In a bid to improve on its service delivery to patients across the board, Sir Emeka Offor Foundation (SEOF) donated a consignment of 40ft container load of medical equipment /supplies worth $380,000 to the management of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital(UITH). Ilorin.
The foundation also donated 100 hospital beds with mattresses, besides cupboards, and accessories.
Chief of Staff to Sir Emeka Offor Foundation, Mr Chris Okey Ezike(AIG rtd) who made the donation, however, urged the UITH to ensure that the items are not sold but used for the purposed they are meant to serve and promised unscheduled post-donation visit to the hospital to confirm that the items are being used as expected.
He noted that “the foundation is a charitable non-governmental organisation, a non-profit organisation founded by Sir Emeka Offor in 1996 and registered under the Companies and Allied Matters Act in 2006 with a vision to reduce poverty, create life-improving economic opportunities for those residing in Nigeria’s marginalised communities through education, health care services, youth empowerment programmes and infrastructural development.”
He said that “In 2020, we started medical equipment distribution as an intervention programme and we are proud to be in partnership with Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development that graciously nominated the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital as beneficiaries of our medical equipment distribution programme for 2020.
“Today, we are donating a consignment of 40ft container load of medical equipment /supplies valued at about $380,000 (Three hundred and Eighty Thousand USD).
“We shall also be donating to the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, one hundred hospital beds with mattresses, besides cupboards and accessories as our modest contribution in the furtherance of the call by the federal government of Nigeria for humanitarian assistance in order to mitigate the challenges of Covid-19 pandemic.”
Mr Ezike added that there is no doubt that health and human services are part of our core mandate because health is fundamental to human existence and this will continue to be pursued so as to advance the good living of the populace.”
The CoS stressed that “since government alone cannot undertake health and human services, our foundation would also continue to be up and doing to support health institutions so as to take health care delivery to the doorsteps of the rural communities in the country.”
While calling the management of the teaching hospital to ensure that the consignment is maintained and used for the target audience, Mr Ezike said that “the consignment is not meant to be sold, resold or exchanged for profit or gain and therefore this consignment has no commercial value.”
He, therefore, noted that “our public health consultant and head of our education unit, Dr Umar Tanko Yakasai shall engage in post-donation visits to ensure compliance with rules of corporate governance”.
Receiving the materials, the Chief Medical Director of UITH, Professor Abdullah Yusuf lauded the foundation for donating the huge sums of medical equipment and supplies to the hospital.
He said that the Emeka Offor Foundation has been at the forefront of making life bearable to the populace since it was established.
Yusuf who assured the foundation that, the consignment would be used for what it was meant for, advising all other corporate bodies and wealthy Nigerians to support health financing so as to boost health care delivery in the country.
Vanguard
