Benue hands over mother-child hospital to BSUTH after Daily Trust report

Barely one week after Daily Trust reported about the non commencement of activities at the Muhammadu Buhari Mother and Child Hospital in Makurdi, the Benue State government has formally handed over the facility for operations to the Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH).

The 120-bed hospital was commissioned on March 1st, this year by President Muhammadu Buhari who was represented at the event by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGH), Boss Mustapha.

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Buhari had said that the Mother and Child Centre (MCC), Makurdi, like other MCCs across the country, was a clear demonstration of his administration commitment to address high rate of maternal and child mortalities in Nigeria.

However, Daily Trust had reported in its Sunday edition of July 31, 2022, that the hospital had yet to begin operation over four months after it was commissioned.

But, four days after the publication, the state government, through the office of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), officially presented the facility to the BSUTH for prompt operation.

Special Adviser on SDGs to the Benue Governor, Prof Magdalene Dura, during a brief ceremony handed over the hospital to the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of BSUTH, Professor Terrumun Swende.

Swende in a telephone conversation with our correspondent in Makurdi on Monday, said with the development, services would now commence fully at the centre.

He said the services would cover basically maternal, ante-natal and post-natal.

“We were just given the place so we are going through the details so that we can start full services. Once, we tidy up the areas we needed to, we will commence operation and we will concentrate on mother and child services. We will render ante-natal services, take care of newborn babies and children generally.

“We will bring very experienced staff from our own end. We will start in the very shortest time. A committee is already set up looking at details from our own end,” the CMD added.

Our correspondent reports that the 120-bed Muhammadu Buhari Mother and Child Centre, Makurdi, is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities which include among others, two operating theatres, recovery rooms, private and general wards, scanning room, consultation rooms and laboratory.

Others include ultra-scan machine, vacuum extractor delivery set and an emergency cart.