Govt. to upgrade 22 teaching hospitals

THE Federal Government plans to  upgrade the 22 teaching hospitals in the country and construct a new 500-bed state-of-the-art Specialist Hospital, in Abuja through Public Private Partnership (PPP), the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) said on Saturday.

The Acting Head, Media and Publicity, ICRC, Mr Patrick Ederaro, said in  a statement in Abuja that the concession model for the existing teaching hospitals’ equipment that would be supplied would be world class standard and life cycle maintenance.

But he explained that there would not be a full concession of any of the entire existing teaching hospitals, so there will be no job losses.

He said: “There will be concessions on and of specific services, for medical equipment supplied like Dialysis Unit, Imaging Unit, Diagnostic Services and other departments mentioned above.

“The concessionaire will finance the supply and maintenance of world class dialysis units and perform to very high output specifications and contracted key performance indicators.”

He added that medical services in the hospitals would be run by the Chief Medical Director (CMD) and his or her staff, but with the benefit of world class support services, provided by the private concessionaire.

Ederaro said that the scope of the concessionaire was limited to the specific service over which the concession was granted to the consortium.

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However, the new state-of-the-art 500-bed Federal Centre of Medical Excellence, in Abuja, would be the only full concession, where the concessionaire would be responsible for all medical services.

According to him, the third phase of the project will involve the equipping, facilities upgrading and modernisation of eight new teaching hospitals.

The teaching hospitals include the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada; University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, Akwa Ibom; Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Edo; and the Federal Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, Ebonyi.

Others are the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital, Bauchi; Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe; National Hospital, Abuja; and Federal Teaching Hospital Ado-Ekiti.