The Ogun State Medical Center of Excellence, also referred to as the 250 bed hospital in Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta is set to be commissioned in December, 2025.
The state governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun made this known during the inspection of the level of work done at the hospital which was built but not completed by the immediate past administration.
Governor Abiodun also disclosed that the hospital when commissioned would be managed by the Abuja Medical Center of Excellence which has the King’s College Hospital as one of its international partners.
Abiodun noted that the hospital will be a ‘Spoke’ for the Abuja Medical Center of Excellence, adding that the Ogun State Medical Center of Excellence will be everybody’s first bus stop.
“We are looking forward to the completion of this project. You can see the exterior is looking very nice, we’ve started landscaping, they’ve built an entrance canopy and the gate, oxygen equipments are working. I have told them to double up on manpower so that we commence operations in the next 2-3 weeks.
“My intention is to come by the grace of God to commission this project sometime in December. This will be one of our Christmas present to Ogun State.
“This facility was left with a lot of civil engineering gaps, I mean a lot, a lot of structural engineering gaps, a lot of electrical engineering gaps, almost nil electrical engineering.
“The Abuja Medical Center of Excellence has agreed in principle that if indeed this facility is completed in line with what we planned to, the way we’ve conceived it, if indeed it is going to be run by Healthshare, that they will partner with this facility.
“The Abuja Medical Center of Excellence has the King’s College Hospital as one of the hospitals internationally and others who are working with them in partnership,” he said.
Governor Abiodun said that the hospital when finally commissioned would help reduce medical tourism to the barest minimum, saying that the facility would rival others around it.
“We know how much Nigerians spend on medical tourism. We know how many instances people are rushed from Ogun State to Lagos hospitals, from Abeokuta to Babcock to Olabisi Onabanjo Teaching Hospital and when that case is beyond them, they now take them to Lagos.
“By the time this hospital is commissioned, all that will stop.
“You can imagine the number of traffic of patients coming from the hinterland, coming from Oyo, Osun and Ekiti states. They have to pass through Ogun State before they get to Lagos. This will be a more convenient location for them to come,” he said.
The Governor said that his administration knowing fully well that the best way to ensure the hospital is well run looked round for partners through its public private partnership office and signed a memorandum of understanding with Healthshare.
“We decided that the best way to run this hospital the way it should be, the best way this hospital will be of use and would be utilised to render the quality of service and care for which it is intended is to find a partner to work with the state.
“We began to look for partners, eventually, through our public private partnership office. We identified one that is called Healthshare Services Limited and sometimes last year, we signed a memorandum of understanding with them and they were to finish this facility,” he said.
The project manager, Healthshare Integrated Solutions, the operator of the hospital complex, Dr Frank Etang promised that they will meet up with the December target for the commissioning of the hospital complex, adding that at the moment, the basement, ground floor, Radiology, laboratory, doctor’s and nurse’s consulting room are in place.
“We are presently rounding up with the first floor where we have the theater, ICU and the wards, so, we are ready for that commissioning,” he said.