Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi, has announced the commencement of rehabilitation work on the State’s 10-storey General Hospital building, saying that Julius Berger Nigeria Plc is the preferred contractor for relevant jobs in the State.
Abayomi who was speaking during the kick off of the rehabilitation work recently, said Julius Berger has for long been tried and tested and found worthy to handle the job.
According to him, the project was important to Lagos State government especially considering the unfortunate fatal incident that occurred at the facility of late and having given due consideration to a lot of companies, Julius Berger was the preferred contractor deemed fit to drive the works due to their records in allied projects in the construction industry in Nigeria.
He urged Julius Berger to come up with a suitable work plan for the project bearing in mind that the safety of the resident doctors are of utmost priority as the hospital is a busy place with lots of patients and doctors going in and out of the facility.
The Commissioner further advised the resident doctors to comply with the safety rules given in order to ensure a smooth operation in the facility as work commences.
He cautioned that a construction site is a dangerous place so the resident doctors should all please adhere to all rules and cooperate with the workers on site.
Responding for JBN, Engineer Adegbenga Osunlana, said a lot of measures will be put in place to safeguard the safety of the residents at the facility and that the Julius Berger HSE team has been deployed to the site.
However, he said that for work to commence immediately, the resident doctors on the 7th to 10th floors of the building were asked to vacate in order for work to commence immediately at the location.
Osunlana assured the commissioner that a lot of measures have been put in place for the safety of all at the facility.
He further said that the well being of the residents of the facilities is also very important to Julius Berger and that is the reason they are called the giant engineering construction company of Africa.
One of the project coordinators, Mr. Bolaji Johnson, reiterated that Julius Berger would love to appeal to the resident doctors that the contractor has mapped out some areas that will be cordoned off as work progresses and that it should be known however, that such places will not be cordoned off forever.
He stressed that as a result, it is likely to cause discomfort and inconvenience, but that it is paramount for the resident doctors to be safety conscious and strictly abide by the rules and signages in place.
In his reaction, representative of the doctors, Doctor Akinsanmi, said the resident doctors have complied with the notification, save for a few doctors that are yet to vacate due to one reason or another.
He pledged to the contractors that everything will be done to enable Julius Berger to start their work in earnest.
During a tour of the facility, the Lagos State Commissioner of Health also stated that a forensic analysis of the collapsed elevator was done and submitted to the Ministry of Justice and that investigation is still ongoing, so he urged the people that will be working on site not to go anywhere close to that area.