By Our Reporter
Property worth millions of Naira have been destroyed at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, UUTH, following torrential rainfall on Tuesday.
It was gathered that, the rains which started at about 4pm lasted over two hours leaving behind sorrow and tears and distortion of movement as roof tops of major facilities were blown off.
It was gathered that, the rains which started at about 4pm lasted over two hours leaving behind sorrow and tears and distortion of movement as roof tops of major facilities were blown off.
Areas mostly affected were walk-ways to the theater, pediatric/medical wards, mortuary, incinerator, School of Health Information Management, laundry, Hospital chapel and electrical blocks. They were largely all destroyed.
More so, the 3-stories radiology and General Out Patient blocks under construction were equally affected as well as the lecture hall for clinical science students from the University of Uyo (UNIUYO), while the perimeter fence covering about 200 meters was brought down.
Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, Professor. Etete Peters in an interview with newsmen, lamented the high level of devastation, disclosing that, thankfully, no life was lost by the wind storm.
With the havoc of the rains, he said some of the services rendered in the hospital like going to the theater for operation and clinical tests have been disrupted.
Professor Peter called on the Federal and State Governments, Federal Ministry of Health, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), multi-national oil firms, corporate bodies, Non-Governmental Organizations and individual to come to the aid of the hospital.
Although, he could not ascertain the actual amount needed to replace the destroyed buildings and facilities, he said millions of Naira would be required to fix the affected property.
“Before, we were battling to complete some on-going projects, but now we are in a serious problem, as we are looking for money to refit those buildings now destroyed by the rains.
“It may be difficult for me to ascertain the cost of replacing the damaged buildings now. The damage is beyond our capacity as it runs into millions of naira. We are indeed in a dire situation as some of the services have been affected.
“Part of the appeal we are making is that we need to re-establish and continue with our normal services in all areas of the hospital. The services have been affected in most parts of the hospital. In some areas like the theater we don’t still have electricity till now.
“Some of the areas are seriously affected to the extent that we cannot resume full services. So, that is why we are appealling and calling for assistance to restore normalcy in the affect units.
“As I’m talking to you, patients are suffering, there were people scheduled for operation today (Wednesday) and various serious tests, so we don’t want disruption of services for members of the public for a very long time.
“We want assistance from the Federal and State Governments, NEMA, SEMA, corporate organisations among others for us to restore our services in all the blocks affected”, Prof Etete Peters pleaded.
