The Chairman Senate Committee on Air Force, Senator Duro Faseyi on Saturday, commissioned the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Reference Hospital in Port Harcourt.
According to a statement by the NAF Director of Public Relations and Information (DOPRI), the 60-bed Reference Hospital is equipped with sophisticated modern facilities including CT Scan, Renal Dialysis Machine, a fully equipped medical laboratory as well as dental and eye centres.
The new hospital was constructed to provide medical care for military personnel and their dependants as well as members of the host communities within the country’s South South Region.
Senator Faseyi while commissioning the hospital, commended the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, for executing several other projects including ultra-modern housing units, in addition to recreational and sporting facilities across various commands and units of the NAF.
In his remarks, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, revealed that the need to reposition the NAF for better service delivery had led to the establishment of new commands and units with a resultant increase in the number of personnel and their dependants.
According to him, the consequent rise in the medical care needs of personnel and their families resulted in the upgrading and expansion of 31 medical facilities including the medical centres at Kainji, Enugu, Ipetu-Ijesha, Benin, Kano, Abuja, Makurdi and Warri.
He added that appropriate additional medical staff, including 36 nurses, had been shortlisted as support staff for the newly commissioned hospital and other upgraded medical facilities to enhance service delivery.
The Nigerian Air Force had earlier commissioned another Reference Hospital in Bauchi, as part of its efforts to boost the welfare of her personnel while also attending to the needs of Internally Displaced Persons in the North East.
