Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara has inaugurated a newly upgraded Neuropsychiatric Hospital and a new general hospital in Rumuigbo, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area.
Naija News reports that his predecessor, Nyesom Wike, is an indigene of Obio/Akpor LGA.
Speaking at the ceremony, the governor said he planned the projects after noticing challenges during an inspection visit to an existing but ageing mental health facility.
According to Fubara, the Hospital Management Board had invited him to inspect the rehabilitation centre being built with limited overhead funds.
He said it was during the visit that he directed that the entire facility be rebuilt, modernised and upgraded.
“It was there and then that I said: Look, we have this very big compound, we need to rebuild, modernise and upgrade the standard of this Neuropsychiatric Hospital and that day, we started this journey,” Fubara said.
The governor recalled that the hospital was conceived in 1970 and inaugurated in 1977 with a 50-bed capacity, adding that one of the foremost doctors who managed the facility, the late Martins Yellowe, later became a senator.
Fubara decried the state of the premises before the upgrade, saying it had become a hub for drug trafficking.
“This place was a drug trafficking centre. We keep people in the rehabilitation centre, but some of our people innocently come here to play football while others are carrying bags to sell drugs to the inmates.
“But with what we have done today, I believe that the environment is secured, well-fenced, and if you must enter here, you must pass through the gates.
“So, to some extent, it will reduce these activities of drug trafficking on these premises,” he said.
The governor said the remodelled neuropsychiatric hospital has a 100-bed rehabilitation centre for people with mental health and substance abuse issues.
He explained that mental health challenges are often triggered by unemployment, depression and other psychological pressures.
Fubara stated, “Even in developed countries, they send people to rehabilitation centres, and they help bring you back to normalcy. So what we have done here is to prepare for the current challenges of our time.”
