UPTH maps out 5-year strategic plan
The University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) says it has set some key objectives to be attained in five years, between 2007 and 2011.
The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Uriah Etawo, made the announcement in portHarcourt, while briefing newsmen on the hospital's plans to position itself as ``an informed patients' first choice''.
He said the hospital was poised to develop its human resource and install equipment in the subspecialty of Endoscopic Surgery, where a patient could be operated with minimal tear.
Etawo explained that the Endoscopic Surgery guarantees quick recovery and reduces cost on the patients as well as minimises the death rate.
He listed other areas of strategic plans to include training of manpower and provision of equipment in Renal Transplantation, Bone Marrow Transplantation and Molecular Medicine services.
Other areas of the strategic objectives are development of manpower and provision of equipment in Radiotherapy, where cancer cases could be treated.
Etawo said the plans had also prioritised research and training of staff, students and postgraduate students to achieve improved services to the society.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that UPTH, which started operations in 1980, has just been upgraded to a five-star hospital.
It is the first teaching hospital in the South-South geo-political zone to be accorded such status.
It moved to its permanent site in October 2006, following its inauguration by President Olusegun Obasanjo.