19 Bayelsa’s abandoned 500-bed hospital laying fallow
put into use next year.
Residents of Bayelsa State are not happy over the state of the hospital. A resident of Ingbi where the hospital is located, Pius Oki, blamed the immediate past administration for not completing the project.
He said the administration of Timipri Silva had all it takes to complete the project but wondered why it was not completed.
“The administration of Silva started the hospital, huge sums of money were committed in the project but still the hospital was not completed. When Dickson came, instead of continuing from where his predecessor stopped, he said he was going to re-model it to a 350-bed hospital. Equipment bought for the hospital are lying fallow, some of them have broken down,” he stated.
Another resident, Johnson Gibson, blamed policy instability for the delay in the completion of the project.
He said, “Government is a continuous process and succeeding administration is expected to continue with the project started by a particular administration. If your predecessor initiated a good project and did not complete it, it is the responsibility of the succeeding administration to continue and complete such project.
“A situation where an administration comes on board and abandons projects initiated by a previous administration is not good for the growth of the state.”
He said the only functional facility in the hospital is the diagnostics centre constructed by the present governor. Patient visits the centre for medical examination and then go to other medical centres for treatment.
“This is not how things should be done. If you want to construct a hospital, you make sure facilities are in place. You don’t put one facility and leave others,” he stated.
Bayelsa State Commissioner for Health, Professor Ebititula Etebu, said the 500-bed hospital was shrouded in impropriety and blamed the previous administration for not showing serious commitment in completing the project.
Etebu said the present administration is doing its best to complete the hospital because “So much has been committed into the project.”
“We are in the process of starting something but because of the present economic crunch, we are looking at best options to continue with the project,” he stated.