Mr. Labaran Maku
The federal government has promised to complete work on the on-going National Trauma Centre at the Abuja University Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada, Abuja within the first quarter of 2013.
The Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, made the pledge at the weekend when he visited the hospital as part of the federal government’s tour of its ongoing projects across the country, which began in the nation’s capital last week.
The 350-bed space hospital, according to the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr. Peter Alabi, was approved. The sum of N799 million was budgeted for the project in 2009, out of which N462 million has been released.
While stressing the significance of the hospital, Maku noted that the Trauma Centre was very dear to the country given the number of deaths recorded from trauma and dearth of facilities for the treatment of curable ailments arising from it.
His said, “It is an important project. Trauma is what is killing many Nigerians because of accidents; a lot of accidents such as fire, disasters and so on. So, we need a place where we can save the victims so that we can save a lot of lives. In the past, people were flown abroad because of the lack of facilities to treat trauma cases. But, sometimes, even before you fly someone in an air ambulance out of this country, he dies on the way. So, we need this facility in our country and most major cities to cope with incidence of trauma to save lives.”
The Minister also commended the manner the project was being handled, and said “This is the type of accountability concept we are talking about. We are focusing a lot on contractors. Where there is low payment, it will be self explanatory. This job is not done because finances have not flown as regularly as expected. We will not blame that on the contractor. But, where contractors are given opportunities and they are not demonstrating capacity, definitely, those contracts will be revoked. There is no way we will continue to wait on you if you are not performing.”
The Centre which was adjudged to have reached 75 percent completion has x-ray, CT/MRI, recovery room, theatres, crash/burns emergency ward laboratory, nursing station among others.
