MOP is another stride in the UMTH (1).

MOP is another stride in the UMTH (1).

By: Lazarus Balami

The beauty of effective leadership is the continuing development and evolution of leadership ideas. So, these were noticeable around the stride being brought to play by the Ahidjo-led management team at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, UMTH. The latest of which is the Medical Oxygen Plant (MOP), adding to the narratives and initiatives of the CMD and his management team.

When NEWSng heard of the Medical Oxygen Plant project initiated by CMD Prof. Ahmed Ahidjo to improve healthcare delivery services in line with international standards of health and hospital management to provide more room for more medical research and teaching in the hospital, in its character for reporting achievements, our team flew in to see things as they were on the ground. And on good authority, we can say that this singular project has distinguished UMTH from other teaching hospitals in the country.

With what we have reported so far and the many ideas coming and dreams becoming reality, we can only say that it is time other hospitals began to take cues as soon as possible from UMTH. Standing in front of a giant liquid gas reserve tank with a capacity of 10,000 liters, we asked, Where do you find this? With the number of specialized medical centers of different types as a common sight In UMTH, in aiding healthcare services, therefore, the need for medical oxygen cannot be overemphasized in this tertiary hospital. 

In our reportage on UMTH, NEWSng has not heard of the Medical Oxygen Plant (MOP) in any hospital across the country. Perhaps most common to most people are the cooking gas plants where you refill your cylinders for domestic use. But an edible oxygen plant is entirely a different thing, far from the common cooking gas plants that we see at every corner of the streets around us.

Hospital medical oxygen plants are primarily built to cater to and provide for oxygen, a basic need in all hospitals and other medical facilities for the treatment of patients in critical conditions. Intentive Care Units (ICU), Child Care Centers, and Baby Incubators are the major consumers of medical oxygen gas. whether or not oxygen simply means gas. In this regard, we are concerned with filterized, refined, and cylinderized oxygen as medical gas oxygen.

At the plant site, our team could see a large liquid oxygen tank (LOT) reservoir. Speaking to our team, Engr. Babangida Mohammed Inuwa, the Head of Oxygen Production, informed us that this section of the Medical Oxygen Plant and its machine, tagged as Plant ‘C’, was constructed and provided by the Federal Ministry of Health in partnership with the National Agency for the Control of Aids (NACA), Abuja, while Air Separation (Nig) Limited Lagos provided the technical know-how of separation from raw liquid gas to medical oxygen gas. 

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“What we had before now was an oxygen refill unit. But today we have a medical oxygen plant of high capacity, standard, and quality production with a reservoir tank of 10, 000 liters of liquid gas,” Engr.Babangida said.

He also said that the first machine is 19 years old but still working infectively and in good shape. ‘ It is all about plant preventive maintenance (PPM) culture. That is what we practice and apply here.” He added. “If this measure is not applied, any breakdown of the three machines will affect our production, and by and large, the hospital will suffer a shortfall of oxygen, and patients will not find it easy’. Also, other hospitals and their patients might be in a similar medical condition. This is because most hospitals in Maiduguri get their medical oxygen from us (UMTH)”. He said.

Speaking on the challenges faced by the medical oxygen plant, the Head of Production, Engr. Babangida Mohammed Inuwa said one major cog in the hospital and the plant is power. “You need power to energize you to do what you want to do. to achieve your goal. Power is energy, and energy is power. There is a major failure of power (electricity) in Maiduguri, and our hospital is at the receiving end. 

“However, our solar systems are bailing us out to some extent. But we need a national grid supply of power. Those in authority should come to our aid’. He said.

Indeed, this is absolutely a problem, as observed in Maiduguri generally. This protracted challenge of power, which has not only affected healthcare services in UMTH and Maiduguri but also business and social activities, calls for government and spirited individuals to come together to salvage the situation, particularly as it affects the health of the people in the state.

The UMTH is doing everything possible to ensure the best attention is given to power generation in the hospital; however, resources are being merged and could not give the needed output as expected. While this is so, it is expected that people should come to this understanding. Our findings revealed that some individuals within and outside the hospital are taking advantage of the electricity outage and/or power failure in the city of Maiduguri to accuse and label the hospital management for refusing to provide electricity to the wards and medical centers. This is absurd!

MOP is another stride in the UMTH (1).