Mimiko in eye of History (1)
I was at Oke Agbe, Akoko North West in Ondo state home to business mogul Otunba Solomon Oladunni and the late Chief Rufus Giwa where I was Guest Speaker and Special guest of honour at the commissioning of one of the 50 Mega schools built by the Mimiko administration. Each of the schools with capacity for 550 pupils provides conducive learning environment. The facilities include among others: computer laboratories, modern library, sickbay, and recreational facilities with magnetic boards.
Primary school children clad in uniforms freely provided by government were seen working dexterously with the computer to the amazement and appreciation of parents and guests conducted round as witnesses. The aesthetic beauty of the architectural design and landscape of the Mega School is food for the eyes!
Nelson Mandela tells us Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world. Education could and would make the child of a ‘nobody’ to compete and most times outclass the children of somebody.
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan says that education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family while Malcolm X affirms that education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today. The great philosopher Obafemi Awolowo says the Mind is the master of man.
In the light of the greatness and power attached to education, Dr Olusegun Mimiko has been harping on the theme of education these past 8 years. His mantra has always been service to motherland, and there can be no better service than to ensure that your motherland has a better future. This is what informed his administration’s unparalleled investment in education, the provision of several primary school blocks, secondary schools, outstanding world class 50 Mega schools, the refurbishment, expansion and reinvigoration of the Adekunle Ajasin University at Akungba, and the first of its kind the University of Medical Sciences at Ondo City, the first in West Africa and second in the whole of Africa among several others.
Investment in knowledge [education] yields the best interest, dividend, according to Benjamin Franklin and to that end, we are guaranteed that the huge investment by Mimiko in education is bound to yield bountiful interest.
Some critics are quick to query the need for Mega schools arguing that most towns where these schools are been established do not have sufficient population to fill up the spaces. This line of thought is of course either myopic or deliberately mischievous. Nigeria today is one of the fastest growing countries in the world. She is currently the seventh most populous country in the world with 186,879,760 million people [Source: Internet World Stats] and believed to jump to 225 million in less than ten years; it is only reasonable that a man with foresight should plan. Besides, Mega schools operate on the economics of scale.
I should quickly add that Mimiko being an award winning medical doctor knows the relationship of sound body to sound mind as beautifully espoused by the late Professor B.O.O. Osuntokun. He has ensured that along with education adequate provision was made for the health and general well being of not only the school-going children but also of their parents especially their mothers who Nature made to provide nurture and nourishment to their children and wards.
The Trauma Centre, Ondo
The greatest attraction for history is Mimiko’s extraordinary investments in health care delivery facilities making his state first among equals in Nigeria. The most outstanding is the world acclaimed Trauma Centre currently run by Dr Oluwole Ige as CMD. I took time to visit the facilities. According to the CMD Dr Ige, the hospital became functional exactly 3years ago, November 2013. It is a purpose built hospital with structure that allows the right flow for efficient trauma and surgical care delivery, comparable to the best in the world.
The environment and surrounding is striking, clean and devoid of the typical hospital smell. It has well-maintained lawns and general aesthetics that can make a visitor feel like being a patient.
The centre has a group of young, committed professional caregivers across medical fields that are full of energy and drive to deliver excellence at all times.
The hospital has state of the art equipment, instruments, gadgets and furniture and it is remarkable that these have been well maintained and the necessary supplies needed for functionality of these equipments have never been lacking unlike what is obtainable in most public hospitals in the country where equipment get out of use due to lack of maintenance or consumables.
It is worthy of note that all these resources are connected to efficient service delivery by a well researched operating protocol and processes that recognises the inherent challenges of trauma and surgical care delivery in Nigeria. Therefore, victims and patients who require emergency care get the right and prompt attention.
Other services rendered include Arthroplasty surgery i.e. Total knee and hip replacement, minimally invasive surgery like laparoscopy, Arthroscopy and Endoscopic procedures, all the range of Spine Surgeries, Pediatric Orthopedics, Sport Medicine, Cancer and Oncological Care, Complex trauma care, Burns, Plastic and Reconstruction Surgery, Urological Surgery, General Surgery, Maxillofacial and General Dental surgical services, Otorhyngolaryngology (ENT), Cardiothoracic Surgery, Vascular Surgery, Neurosurgery, Ophthalmology, Pediatric Surgery, Interventional Radiology, Anesthesia and Critical Care as well as Physical therapy and automated multi specialty laboratory and blood transfusion services.
The trauma response is fast and efficient, it gives the maximum chance of survival to victims irrespective of the severity or degree of injury. This is achieved through a crash system that has the state of the art crash bay as its engine room. In the Crash room are Overhead bed Panels with constant Oxygen flow, suction pumps, multi parameter invasive monitors per station, a functional crash cart with constant supplies, Point of care machine that can rapidly carry out blood investigations including arterial blood gases, base deficit and lactate level which are essential investigations that is not done in more than 90% of Nigerian hospitals. The crash room is also equipped with high resolution ultrasound machines for Focused assessment sonography for trauma (FAST scan), mobile X ray, facilities to quickly establish and maintain Airway including tracheotomy, insert central lines and chest tubes. Any patient who requires ventilator support has that commenced in the crash room.
Unpublished data in the hospital puts the reduction in Morbidity and Mortality at more than 50% as compared to other tertiary centres in the country. The Centre also has the record time for carrying out emergency surgical intervention, which implies that all the preliminary preparations before surgery are done in a record time. It’s noteworthy that the hospital was granted accreditation to train post graduate doctors in Surgical specialties, in an unprecedented record time of less than 1year after its commencement by the National Postgraduate Medical College, the West African College of Surgeons after a year and later by the West African College of Surgeons and National post graduate medical college for Anesthesia and Radiology
Mother and Child Hospital, Ondo (MCHO)
History will certainly look kindly on Mother and Child Hospital Ondo, MCHO
Currently headed by DR Michael O. GBALA as The Chief Medical Director,
The Mother and Child Hospital Ondo (MCHO), commissioned on November 30, 2012 has according to the CMD registered and attended to over 85,212 patients in the four years of her existence. It has performed over Four thousands of major Obstetrics and Gynaecological surgeries free of charge. The hospital is a major battle axes in the Ondo State, world-acclaimed “ABIYE Safe Motherhood Initiative”, a lethal bullet against maternal death and under-5 morbidity and mortality. This was instrumental to the success of Ondo State being the only State in Nigeria to achieve MDG 5. MCHO has been accredited and commenced training of postgraduate resident doctors in Obstetrics and Gynaecology by the West African College of Surgeons (WACS) and National Post Graduate Medical College of Nigeria (NPMCN). Residents from some Federal Teaching Hospitals and Federal Medical Centres do come to MCHO for Clinical attachment. The Anaesthesia unit of MCHO collaborates with Ondo State Trauma and Surgical Centre for training of Residents in Anaesthesia.
