To trim down the health challenges among the people of his constituency, House of Representatives member representing Ekiti North Federal Constituency 1, Hon Bimbo Daramola has provided a health care delivery system, a 38-bed hospital in his constituency.
"You can aspire to be anything but there are two provisos that can make it possible, if God allows it and if you are in a good health condition. Our former president, late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua would have been in his second term but because of his health challenge he could not. Those were the words and motivations of Hon Bimbo Daramola who embarked on a massive 38-bed hospital project at Ire town, in his Federal Constituency.
With the construction of the 38-bed hospital that would be commissioned in few months to come, the people of Ekiti North Federal Constituency in Ekiti State would be relieved from some dangerous ailment.
It takes the Ire people about 35 to 40 minutes to locate the nearest hospital, Ikole Medical Hospital and Federal Medical Centre in Ado Ekiti. Apart from the distance, the people around the location of the hospital also told THISDAY that if they are not able to see the doctor, they find it difficult to go back to the hospital.
Daramola before the construction of the hospital, organises an annual medical check up in his constituency which he said was to improve the health condition of his people but because of the turn out every year, he decided to build an hospital to lessen the stress and health challenges of his people.
The hospital has a male ward, female ward, children ward, theatre, laboratory, delivery room, recovery room. It also has a place for babies that are born prematurely, consulting offices, nurse’s common room, doctor’s common room and a gallery and a place where sick people can stay.
Speaking to Journalists in Ado Ekiti, Daramola who is also the Deputy Chairman, House Committee on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), noted that no matter what a health challenged person wish for himself it would not be realised.
According to him, “The rich men know how to take care of themselves and they have regular routine medical check up. So, I said to myself, I may not be able to give money to everybody but if I have a place where all medical facilities will be put in place so that people of my constituency and even people outside my constituency can go to and have their medical check-up done and then we can find out what their medical challenges are, it will be very easy for us to nip in the bud what their medical challenges are.”
“As an extension, we started medical intervention where we would put a team of medical practitioners together that will go to the villages in our constituency and give them opportunity to have medical doctors attend to them.
“We started it and that has tremendously helped our people. You find people who have challenges that we can deal with, like some of the guys we treated that have High Blood Pressure (HBP), diabetes; because they have the opportunity of seeing doctors, their problems were easily addressed. And because you can begin to counsel them, you could easily prevent them or save them from some dangerous ailment that could cause their lives.
“We have attended to a woman who has breast cancer, we have attended to a girl who has cancer of the mouth, we have attended to all kind of crises because I belief that health is wealth. You may not be able to count people that are dying cheaply. Life is very sacred, there is sanctity of life and I am duty bound to respect the sanctity of life,” Daramola stressed.
Speaking further, he said: “I am committed to ensure that we solve the problem of anybody who is medically challenged. I don’t want to keep doing it fleetingly.
For instance, that medical mission, I intend to do it every quarter but I discovered that our people cannot wait for another quarter to get medically checked up. So, I said let me have a medical facility in place, the 38 medical facility you went to see in Ire and in the whole of that area there is no medical facility like that.”
Stating his reason for going for a bigger project, Daramola said: “Why I decided to build the hospital big is that anybody around that area, from Ikole to Aiyegbaju can come there and meet a medical officer that can get them checked up. My dream is to make a centre of excellence so that at the end of the day anybody regardless of anywhere they are can benefit it.”
Dr. Yomi Oshatime who has been the supervising doctor even before the construction of the hospital, noted that the project was born out of Daramola’s passion to bring health care delivery system to the grassroots and the people of his constituency, Ekiti North Federal Constituency, comprising of Oye and Ikole Local Government Areas.
He added that it was also born out of his plan to have a quarterly health care programme for his people. “We have done series of it. At the first one we saw close to 3000 people. We have four units, two at Oye Local Government Area and two at Ikole Local Government for that particular programme, we bought and distributed drugs what over N1million apart from payment of the staff.
“Now in between the initial health programme that we had and the building of the hospital, we have done series of health programmes. We have done series of surgeries. We pictures of cancers we have done. There is a surgery we spent N450,000. We have series of cancer surgeries.
“At a point, I was trying to keep tab on the amount we spend. The last one I calculated, we spent over N5million. For this month we have a bill of N1million and that is how we go round doing it in different hospitals, we now thought of instead of asking people to come from far, we need to have our own hospital on a centre where people can go and doctor instead of to Ado Ekiti where the State’s Teaching Hospital is located and also to enable us save some fund,” Oshatime said.
Mr. James Adebayo who is from the constituency, told THISDAY, that Daramola is a blessing to the people of Ekiti North Federal Constituency. “Since he was elected, he has been a source of joy to us. He has done marvellously well and has not stop doing; and God will continue to bless him. At least by the time this hospital is completed and commissioned it would save several lives,” Oshatime noted.
And this however, he said would encourage other lawmakers in the state and the country at large to embark on a quality health service programmes in their various constituencies.
No doubt, this is one of the benefits of free, fair and credible elections. Apart from his party, the Action Congress of Nigeria, Daramola before the 2011 general election was already his peoples’ choice. And for the support during his election, he promised never to betray their trust in him by delivering democracy dividends.
