After nearly two years in limbo the Abia State University Teaching Hospital (ABSUTH) has regained full accreditation following a clean bill of health issued by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria (MDCN).
The state-owned Teaching Hospital lost its accreditation in May 2022 following persistent industrial unrest and inactivity caused by unpaid salaries of over 24 months.
But on assumption of office Otti made the resuscitation of ABSUTH a top priority and resolved the unpaid salary problem and procured needed equipment for the health institution to regain its status. The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Ngozi Okoronkwo, was said to have broken the news about the positive outcome of the visit by the MDCN accreditation team led by the Deputy Registrar, Dr. Nnaemeka Nwakanma.
“We just concluded our meeting with the team. To the glory of God, we have full accreditation to graduate medical students for the next five years,” Dr. Okoronkwo was quoted to have announced to the governor late Thursday night. Apart from getting permission to restart training medical doctors, the health commissioner said that the admission quota of ABSUTH has been increased from 120 to 150 per session. She further stated that the renewed accreditation meant that to train 60 house officers per annum for the next four years, adding that “the number can be increased if we employ more full time consultants in the department of paediatrics”.
With the new development the Abia State University Accreditation Committee headed by the Vice-chancellor, Professor Maxwell Ogbulu has “immensely” thanked the governor and the Health Commissioner for breathing life into ABSUTH. Otti had earlier vowed to the MDCN team which paid him a courtesy visit at Nvosi, Isiala Ngwa, that ABSUTH would not be allowed to go under and lose its accreditation again. He said: “Never again should it happen that we will lose accreditation, it’s a big shame. I was not in government when it happened, but I saw it coming, and I wrote; I wrote to the former governor. “Before the accreditation was withdrawn, I saw everything; lecturers were on strike, the whole place dilapidated, I actually lost a friend there. So, we can’t continue like that. As if I was being clairvoyant, it didn’t take long before the accreditation was withdrawn.”
The governor said that having inherited the huge problem in ABSUTH left by his predecessor, “I was very deliberate in ensuring that the accreditation was restored”. He said that his administration had put in enormous efforts in rehabilitating the health institution and bringing it up to standard as the restoration of ABSUTH accreditation was a major priority to his government. Otti assured that his government would look into all shortcomings identified by the accreditation team with a view to attending to them timeously.
He expressed the commitment of his administration to proper staffing of all healthcare institutions in the state, so that Abians and residents would have unhindered access to quality healthcare.
According to him, the essence of governance was to promote welfare and security of the people, noting that it was for this reason that the education and health sectors got 20 and 15 percent, respectively, in the 2024 budget of the state. “That we’re able to deliver service to our people, for me, that is what is most critical. We have done a few things that some people ordinarily would not want to do,” he said.
