The Egbin Power Plc in collaboration with the Sahara Group Foundation has donated a five-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) to Ijede General Hospital, Ikorodu, to enhance healthcare service delivery in Lagos state.
Chief Executive Officer of Egbin Power Plc, Mr Mokhtar Bounour, made this known at the inauguration of the project on Tuesday in Lagos.
Bounour described the project as part of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme.
According to him, the company will remain committed to community development.
He said the company collaborated with Sahara Group Foundation to provide the ICU facility alongside other healthcare equipment to aid healthcare delivery services in Lagos State.
Bounour added, “Egbin Power Plc recognises continuous engagement as a strategy that will provide ample opportunity for stakeholders to better understand and be a part of the decision-making processes, which will, in turn, provide Egbin with the needed support and cooperation.
“The company has continued to proactively cater to the social needs of her prominent stakeholder categories and the host communities, through its CSR initiatives.
“Today, we are handing over a completed fully equipped ICU health facility to the Ijede General Hospital, Ikorodu to save lives and enhance healthcare service delivery within the area and beyond.
“Therefore, I urge management of the hospital to take good care of the facility by ensuring its effective maintenance and always reach out to the company for support at any time.”
Also speaking, Mrs Ejiro Gray, Director, Governance & Sustainability, Sahara Group Foundation, said the gesture was aimed to boost availability and access to quality healthcare services, which was grossly inadequate within Ijede locality.
Gray lamented that lots of lives had been lost due to lack of such facility and patients in critical emergency health conditions traveling far distances to access care.
According to her, the ICU ward will not only cater for emergency and critical health conditions but also save and give hope to many lives.
She said, “At Sahara Group Foundation, we are committed to building sustainable society; one of the things that is critical to that initiative is ensuring that our healthcare system is supported.
“Though, healthcare is not part of the primary focus of the foundation, it is a key part of the larger objective of building a sustainable society.
“So, we identified key health institutions across the country that will benefit from the use of the state-of-heart medical equipment and structure from the commissioned COVID Isolation Centre in Abuja.
“And Ijede General Hospital being the critical hospital in one of our operative locations is a beneficiary of that initiative.
“So, we have donated a fully equipped ICU and other medical equipment to the hospital to enable it save lives and ensure that we are providing succour to members of the community.
“Before now, patients in critical health conditions used to go as far as Gbagada to access ICU services, imagine the logistics of moving critically ill patients to nearest ICU facility; a lot of lives would have been lost in the process.
“So, rather than just donate the equipment, Egbin and Sahara Group have jointly equipped the ICU facility to handle both emergency and critical cases.”
Dr Mobolaji Olukoya, Commissioner 1, Health Service Commission, Lagos State, described the gesture as a laudable project capable of transforming operation of the hospital to a higher level.
Olukoya, thanked the company for its steadfast supports to the hospital which included providing it with uninterrupted power supply for the past five years.
“What is going on here today is going save lives not only for the Ijede community, but also outside the community.
“Thanks to the two groups for their donations and partnership with the hospital, which has added another feather to Ijede General Hospital,” Olukoya said.
Earlier, the Acting Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Olumuyiwa Balogun, expressed excitement over existence of a state-of-the-heart health facility like ICU in the hospital.
Balogun said the facility would not only enhance performance of the hospital but also make work easier for the staff, saying that the donors of facility had been critical stakeholders of the hospital for the past 10 years.
“What we now have here is state-of-the-art health facility owned by not up to five hospitals across Lagos state.
“Even some of our sister hospitals that have this facility, have like three-bedded ICU but here, we have up to five-bedded ICU, capable of reviving someone who had been in coma for weeks, so, am very happy,” he said.
Dignitaries at the occasion included Director, Medical Services, Lagos State Health Service Commission, Dr. Adegbite Olawale; Director of Nursing Services, Lagos State Health Service Commission, Dr. Adebukola Cole; Medical Director, General Hospital Ikorodu, Dr. Taiwo Hassan; Medical Director, General Hospital Agbowa, Dr. Femi Aletan and immediate past Chief Medical Director, General Hospital Ijede, Dr. Abimbola Okudero.
Others were Baale of Ipakan, High Chief Mustapha Lasisi; Prince Yussuf Bello, representing Egbin Kingdom as well as the Community
