By Asmau Ahmad
The sickbay of Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Kaduna State, has been upgraded to a full-fledged-secondary hospital with 50 beds. The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Abdullahi Mustapha, said this on Tuesday in his speech at the inauguration of the facility at the institution’s main campus at Samaru. Mustapha who said that he met the project on his table on assumption of office, added that providing such a facility was a task uppermost to his administration.
The V-C gave thanks to God for the opportunity to undertake the project during his tenure. He said that his administration was also working to ensure that it establishes a similar facility at the Kongo campus of the university. Mustapha said that the university also intended to provide modern hospital facilities at the new ABU-phase-two project to prevent people from embarking on overseas trip for medical check-ups.
The V-C advised the staff and students of the institution who had not registered with National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) to do so, because of its importance. Also, Prof. Mohammed Lawal-Khalid, the Chief Medical Director, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), said that the services being rendered by the sickbay would improve based on current facilities.
Lawal-Khalid promised to mobilise manpower from ABUTH to effectively take care of personnel needs of the hospital. Similarly, the Director, University Health Services, Dr Nana Hauwa’u-Madugu, said that the sickbay was established in 1962 to take care of the health needs of the university community.
“This facility was established in 1962 as a sickbay, literally, this means a place or room a patient is kept awaiting referral to a clinic or hospital.
“At that time, limited services could only be rendered and the population of both the staff and students was not significant enough to warrant expanded services,” she said.
The director listed the facilities inaugurated to include: a 10-bed capacity in-patient female ward, a six-bed capacity male ward, an amenity ward for senior staff and a fully equipped operating theatre.
Others according to her are, a modern-labour ward with beds that would give a single solution for labour delivery as well as an administrative block.
