UUTH: Reviewing stewardship of Dr Emem Bassey
By Franklyn Isong
“Knowing the problems of the hospital does not give you the magic wand to solve all the problems. I am not claiming that I am coming to fix all the problems. All I am saying is that I am willing to try. I am going to give all my heart and soul for things to work in this hospital. But then, I am not doing it alone. It is going to be a collective task. So, this still revolve around the attitude of staff,” Dr. Emem Abasi Bassey, said during one of his interfaces with me.
When on Monday, 8th October, 2018, Dr. Emem-Abasi Bassey, a consultant in obstetrics and gynecology took over as the substantive Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH), Uyo, Akwa Ibom State from the then Acting CMD, Dr. Isaac Udo, after his appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari, expectations were high.
Records have shown that since the tertiary health institution started in 1996 as Sani Abacha Hospital, Emem Bassey is the first CMD to be appointed from amongst its workers.
Before his appointment as CMD, Bassey had put in 14 years of service in the institution in several cadres including at the top management level, suffice it that he knows the challenges facing the UUTH.
During his days as the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Bassey while on sabbatical leave did not stop rendering services for the growth of the hospital.
Yesterday, I stopped over to assess development at the UUTH and was conducted round the newly inaugurated General Out-Patient Department (GOPD) by the CMD.
I was amazed at the level of progress in the UUTH. The new OPD complex is one of the abandoned uncompleted two-storey buildings in the premises of the UUTH inherited by the Emem Bassey’s led administration. This long abandoned building has now been completed, furnished and converted into the new GOPD complex and was commissioned for use on 24th August, 2020.
Conducting yours truly round the complex, the CMD explained that his administration’s believes in patients satisfaction. He stated that in a worse case scenario where a patient is not treated, the patient should go with the impression that the hospital team are prompt in their responses and have done their best medically.
The new GOPD complex comprises:
1. Consulting Rooms: The seven Consulting Rooms are spacious and each are meant to contain three Consulting Doctors at a time (but for the COVID-19 Pandemic), as against the old GOPD facility, which only contained one doctor at a time.
2. Account Section: The facility has the Account Section to enable patients carry out financial transactions within the facility without having to move out to other facilities for that purposes.
3. Medical Laboratory: It has a fully equipped laboratory facility for testing of patients within the complex instead of patients moving to and fro other facilities.
4. Pharmacy: It has a well-equipped Pharmacy with pharmacists that speedily dispense drugs to patients based on prescriptions of doctors.
5. Record Section: The complex has a Record Section for filing of medical records of patients that visit the complex for any medical treatment.
6. Resident Doctors Lounge: A well furnished and spacious comfortable lounge where resident doctors on call within the new GOPD complex can walk in and relax for awhile has also been provided within the complex.
7. Hematology Day Care: There is a blood transfusion, resuscitation and close monitoring of patients department having a male and female wards with each containing 4 bed spaces for patients.
The UUTH premises has been cleaned up. Better organised. Well focused and made to be more people’s driven.
Some Resident Doctors working in the Hospital, who pleaded anonymity, have commended the Emem-Abasi Bassey’s management team for turning Hospital into a brand that can now favourably compete amongst its contemporaries in the country.
They asserted that within two years of his administration, Dr Bassey has taken steps to ensure that any patient that steps into the hospital is medically attended to within a time frame of one hour maximum.
Yours truly makes bold to further attests to the fact that the UUTH has regained its lost glory through the conscious, concerted efforts, commitment and purposeful plans and vision of Emem Bassey’s CMDship.
This new GOPD complex is just one of the Star Projects of Dr. Bassey-led management in UUTH within two years of his administration. Watch this space for more.
~Franklyn Isong is a public affairs commentator and conscience of the society
