It has been three years of Governor Wike’s phenomenal transformational changes for the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital, says Chief Medical Director
As the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital marks its third-year anniversary, the Chief Medical Director, Dr Friday E. Aaron has reiterated the resolve of the management and staff of the hospital to translate the vision of Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike in creating the teaching hospital into the delivery of first-class medical services to the people of the state and the entire Niger Delta region.
“We thank the State Governor for his vision of transforming the former Braithwaite Specialist Hospital into a full fledge teaching hospital for the training of medical students and other health professionals from the Rivers State University. This has been three years of monumental milestones capped by the flag of the construction of a renal centre. We can only match the passion of the governor with our dedication to give the best in service to the state and beyond,” Dr Aaron said.
The law establishing the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital bestows on it the mandate of providing teaching, researching and health services beyond the level of a general hospital that the former Braithwaite Specialist Hospital had. To match the new scope of activities of the hospital, the Rivers State Government embarked on extensive upgrade of infrastructure, recruitment of personnel and the supply of state-of-the art medical equipment.
“We boast of about the best radiology unit in this whole region, through the instrumentality of the state governor who has shown genuine interest in quality healthcare delivery. On our part, we are recreating ways of achieving patient satisfaction by retraining, process improvement and system optimisation.
RSUTH is fast transforming into a centre of excellence for the training of health care professionals and the delivery of quality tertiary health services through several innovations—corporate branding; deliberate change management and rapid infrastructural development:
Some of the changes achieved in the past three years include the rollout of the hospital’s first ever Vision, Mission and Core Values; the construction of critical facilities previously lacking and renovation of existing ones; the digitisation—e-consultation, e-registration, online intern assessment, multiple payment options including USSD; the introduction of continuous training and welfare packages for the hospital’s workforce; the realignment of the hospital’s leadership structure, standardising organogram and introduction of RSUTH’s five-year strategic plan and the improved patient satisfaction as direct fallout of the introduction of first ever clinical Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for all RSUTH service providers.
Others are the elimination of miscommunication and compliance failures through workflow redefinition, the successful accreditation of courses of the Rivers State University College of Medical Sciences for the MBBS programme; the reaccreditation of departments by the Post-graduate Medical Colleges; the payment of Residency training Grants to residents resulting in better performance in various Fellowship examinations of the West African and National Post-graduate Medical Colleges and 24-hour power supply in the hospital.
Though in its infancy, the 375-bed facility run by some 731 medical personnel spread across twelve medical and four support services departments, is etching its name in gold already in Nigeria’s medical community.
Signed:
Mr. Okechuku Chukuigwe
Ag. Director of Administration
Rivers State University Teaching Hospital
