Babatope Okeowo 
Forty-three years after it was established, President Bola Tinubu directed the takeoff of the Teaching Hospital of the Federal University of Technology Teaching Hospital, Akure (FUTA)
Already, the university established in 1981 by the government of President Sheu Shagari has begun medical sciences without hope of clinical for the students of the institution.
However, President Tinubu gave a marching order to the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Mohammad Pate, who dispatched a team to the state to assess the location of the teaching hospital to include the proposed medical facility in the 2025 budget.
The Director of Hospital Services, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Jimoh Olawole Salaudeen, who led the presidential team to Akure, the Ondo State capital, inspected the permanent site of FUTA where the hospital would be located.
Dr. Salaudeen also inspected the Akure Annex of the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital (UNIMEDTH), which would serve as a temporary site for the teaching hospital.
Dr. Salaudeen, who spoke with reporters after the inspection, said he was satisfied that the Teaching Hospital would soon become operational due to available facilities on the ground.
His words “There was a directive from Mr. President that there shall be in Akure a federal teaching hospital. This mandate was given to the Minister of Health, Mohammad Ali Pate, that we should move in quickly to ensure the institutions are established.
“We are here to interact with the state government to know where they want to give us for the commencement of the teaching hospital. We learned that FUTA had commenced training medical students, and they are already at the 300 level.
“There is a place the state government is ready to give us as a temporary site for the commencement of the teaching hospital. We are happy that a space has been provided for the permanent site. I am happy that there is a lot of structure at the site. We saw an auditorium, a health centre, and a block of classrooms.
“We visualized the place for the temporal site in terms of equipment so that we will be able to identify the gaps for a model federal tertiary hospital. We will start filling in the gaps to aid the training of medical students.
“From what we have seen and the kind of welcome from the community, we think the commencement of the clinical training is hopeful. The learning of the students will be easier. When we have the community support, there will be peace.
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Banji Ajaka, said the state government was ready to provide all necessary support to actualize the president’s directive.
According to him “Before the permanent site can get to a level for academic activities, they will have to start from somewhere. We have drafted a MOU and done a lot of things. We want the medical students to finish on record time.”
Similarly, the Vice Chancellor of FUTA, Prof. Adenike Oladiji, said the institution has been worried about which hospital its medical students would use for their clinical studies.
She said “I am extremely happy that we have a government that is responsive to the yearnings of the people. We have a medical school, and we have been thinking, How do we get a teaching hospital? Surprisingly, the federal government is coming to our rescue.
“We have a department for biomedical engineering. The idea is to have engineers produce equipment; we are going to be able to contribute to what is needed in the school of health sciences.”
