In 1982 the Federal Government commenced work in the Permanent Site located next door to the University of Port Harcourt. Work was however abandoned in 1984 and later recommenced in 1998, a period spanning 14 (fourteen) years.
By 2001 the first phase was completed and some services commenced at the Permanent Site, leading to its commissioning on the 12th of October 2006 by the then President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. Presently, work is still ongoing in order to meet strategic development goals.
Despite the rather tortuous journey, the past 38 (thirty-eight) years have been one of consistent and progressive development in all facets of its statutory functions, i.e. training of health manpower, provision of medical services at Primary, Secondary and Tertiary levels as well as research in Medical and Health Services.
Presently, UPTH has in its employment 182 Specialist (Consultants) staff in virtually all specialties and subspecialties (such as Neurology and Neurosurgery, Cardiology and Cardiothoracic Surgery, Paediatrics and Neonatology, Paediatric Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Endocrinology, Nephrology, Urology, Haematology, Anatomical Pathology, Chemical Pathology, Radio Diagnostics etc); 400 Resident Doctors (Trainee Specialists), 603 Nurses in various Specialties and 40 Pharmacists.
The University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital treats well over 400,000 out-patients per annum, over 10,000 in-patients per annum and well over 3000 surgeries per annum.
In the last 38 years, UPTH has in collaboration with the College of Health Sciences turned out over 2000 Doctors, over 1300 House Officers and well over 100 Specialists (Consultants). Some of UPTH trained Specialists are presently working in the USA, Britain and other European countries, Middle East etc with excellent performance reports.
The Hospital is considerably well-equipped with modern medical equipment. In 2006, over two billion naira (N2b) worth of highly sophisticated medical equipment from the Federal Government/Vamed programme was commissioned to augment what the Hospital already had. Some of such equipment include Magnet Resonance Imaging (MRI), Mammography machine, Intensive Care Monitors, 2D-Doppler Echocardiography etc.
REFERRAL SERVICES
The University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital is the foremost tertiary health facility in Rivers State. However, it provides primary and secondary level care as well.
REVENUE GENERATION & ALLOCATION
The Hospital’s Management introduced the Revolving Fund Scheme System patterned after the Drug Revolving Fund Scheme of the Federal Ministry of Health in 1998. By this Scheme, the revenue-yielding departments were made quasi-autonomous in areas of funds generation and utilization. This in itself boosted the morale of staff of the various departments as they saw themselves participating in and being responsible for the achievements of the Hospital. This also led to the reduction in the out-of-stock syndrome associated with the availability of drugs and other consumables in the Hospital. It has now been further modified to run in accordance with the government’s policy of Due Process and accountability.
The combined effect of the implementation of the Revolving Fund Scheme Programme, Due Process, and accountability policy has boosted internally generated revenue. Similarly, equipment repairs and minor structural repairs of buildings and facilities have been affected with minimum delays through this process.
