Shettima inaugurates 400-bed teaching hospital, schools in Borno
Vice-President Kashim Shettima has inaugurated the 400-bed Kashim Ibrahim University Teaching Hospital in Maiduguri, as part of efforts to strengthen healthcare delivery and medical training in Borno.
The hospital, established by Gov. Babagana Zulum’s administration, is expected to reduce medical tourism by providing advanced diagnostic and specialist healthcare services within the state.
The facility comprises 13 specialist departments covering diagnostic services, surgery, emergency care, paediatrics, internal medicine and physiotherapy, among others.
It also has a medical college complex, students’ hostel, 200-unit staff housing estate and an oxygen plant complex.
The hospital is equipped with modern diagnostic facilities, including a 1.5-tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner, a 160-slice Computerised Tomography (CT) scanner, three conventional and two mobile X-ray machines.
Other equipment includes three 4D ultrasound machines, a fluoroscopy system for real-time imaging and a digital mammography machine.
The facility is also expected to strengthen medical education and help address the shortage of healthcare professionals in Borno and the North-East by training doctors, nurses and other health workers.
The vice-president also inaugurated Yerwa Practice Mega Primary School, constructed by the Zulum administration, and another mega primary school built under the Kashim Shettima Free Education Programme.
The programme provides free education to orphans and vulnerable children.
Shettima commended Zulum for the projects, describing them as enduring investments in healthcare and education.
He said that the impact of leaders should be measured by the institutions they established, infrastructure they provided and lives improved through public service.
“We shall be judged by what survives our time in office. The offices we held, the aides who surrounded us, and the length of our convoys will have surrendered their importance.
“What will endure are the institutions we built, the roads we built and the lives we improved through service,” he said.
Shettima said he had confidence in Zulum’s vision, noting that his commitment to healthcare and education was reflected in the projects inaugurated.
He said the teaching hospital and the schools established across Maiduguri and other parts of the state demonstrated the governor’s belief that Borno’s recovery must extend to patients requiring treatment and children seeking access to education.
The vice-president said the projects reflected the importance of building institutions that would continue to serve the people beyond the tenure of the administrations that established them.
