Obio Cottage Hospital (OCH) was established in 1978 by the Rivers state government. It started as a primary health centre (PHC) providing preventive and curative health care services to mostly indigenes of Obio/Akpor LGA. More than two decades later, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) started supporting the hospital as part of its social infrastructure programme. SPDC upgraded and rehabilitated the facility converting the 4 bed health care centre operating on a small twin bungalow building with 13 staff, to a 40 bed facility with over 100 staff.
With the immense upgrade and rehabilitation by SPDC, came an increasingly number of service provision. The facility which was initially known to provide mainly immunization services commenced provision of many other services such as surgical services, circumcisions, special care baby unit, 24 hour pharmacy service, laboratory service, radiological service etc.
In 2010, SPDC introduced the Community Health Insurance Scheme, an innovative programme that aims at providing effective and efficient healthcare services through the pooling of funds by members of the scheme. This scheme is guided by SPDC’s Global memorandum of Understanding (GMOU) which identifies key responsibilities of every partner. Three Health Maintenance Organizations run independently and are responsible for managing the program.
Through SPDC many Organizations such as FHI 360, Rotary club International, NHIS and Epi Afric have come to be partners in progress with the Hospital. SPDC has since been providing managerial, technical and financial support to the overall functioning of the facility.
