Stakeholders in the healthcare sector in Ebonyi State have commended the effective collaboration between President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor David Umahi towards upgrading facilities at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State.
The commendation came at the heels of the visit of the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, to the State, during which he commissioned some completed projects in the hospital.
The stakeholders, however, observed that more still needed to done to address the enormous challenges in the country’s health sector.
They noted that President Buhari has so far demonstrated much political will to actualize his next level agenda in health and other sectors.
Speaking to newsmen, the Chairman, Management Board of the AEFUTH, Abakaliki, Alhaji Tijani Ahmed, attributed their achievements in the hospital to the ready support of the President and the enabling environment offered to them by Governor Umahi.
Ahmed acknowledged the mutual understanding and cooperation among the Board members with the management of the hospital, describing it as the catalyst to their superlative performance so far.
Speaking on the significance of the commissioned projects by the Vice President, the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr. Emeka Onwe Ogah, explained that the facilities included a 500 seater auditorium and conference Hall and Lassa Fever observation bay.
Ogah commended Umahi for his unrelenting interventions in the hospital, including the payment of medical bills of indigent patients and the ongoing construction of a multi million naira ultramodern Accident and Emergency Complex.
He extolled the ability of the Board Chairman and the goodwill he had attracted to the hospital these few years, describing him as a man endowed with wisdom and charisma.
Onwe said: “First of all, let me thank God for making these projects a reality.
“I want to also thank Mr. President and his Excellency, the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, for coming.
“We have a lot of projects to be commissioned, some fully completed and some yet to be completed and all of them are very significant.
“We have the 500 seater auditorium, the 700 sister lecture theatre, the Observation Bay, the EMR/Electronic Revenue Collecting system as well as the unveiling of our new Logo.
“The hospital now has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Alex Ekwueme Federal University and the lecture hall would be a sufficient facility to accommodate the Medical Students as they cross over.
“The Observation Bay of course, which was established in partnership with a non-governmental organization, Doctors without Borders, has helped tremendously in the management of Lassa Fever outbreak since its completion early this year.
“So presently, we have started and in a couple of months, we will get there and with the Electronic Recording System, the patients waiting time will be reduced, while the billing system would be harmonised.
“And I am happy with the Board that God gave us through President Buhari.
“We work like a family and they have promised to take this hospital to the next level, to make it a medical tourist centre, and it has started.
“And the Governor from inception has assured us that he would do anything to assist us for the good of not only Ebonyians, but for all users of our facility.
“And that promise he has kept.
“The Governor is a rare gem.
“Although I am not a politician, but permit me to say that he is a governor that so many other governors need to emulate.”
Others who added their voices, including the Borad Chairman of the Federal Teaching Hospital, Kogi State and an indigenes of the State, Hon. Enyi C. Enyi; and a Board member of AEFUTHA, Dr. Kingsley Enweremadu, challenged politicians at all levels to always set aside politics in matters concerning the welfare of citizens.
Enyi described it as unfortunate that the entire South East before now could not boast of a simple medical equipment such as a CT Scan in any of the teaching hospitals, but noted that the synergy between these leaders has brought in tremendous change.
He informed that he has, through his personal stewardship, attracted some medical equipments to the teaching hospital, promising to continue to effectively employ his office to complement the laudable efforts of President Buhari and Governor Umahi.
He further expressed pride in the achievements made by the AEFUTHA Management Board, adding that he was working so hard to replicate same in the Federal Teaching hospital, Kogi, where he is the Board chairman.
Enyi added: “As a Board Chairman, I will make bold to say that the health sector in the country has not attained the desired level.
“W are still lagging behind in infrastructural aspects, equipments and medical aspect.
“There are so many things we still need to get in this country.
“You can imagine that the whole South Eastern Nigeria, no tertiary hospital has what we refer to as a modern CT Scan, except the private ones.
“Look at people that have kidney problems, they often go, sometimes, outside the region to access MRI Machines.
“But today, I thank God that some of those things are coming in, but these were the challenges we have in the healthcare sector.
“So we still need improvement in health financing, budgeting implementations and so on.
“Without President Muhammadu Buhari’s value for human life, I don’t think these things would have been achieved.
“I think before long, these problems we are encountering today would be a thing of the past.
“I know we will certainly reach the next level in practice and not merely in theory.”
Enweremadu emphasized that the Board in collaboration with the management of the hospital would not relent in driving their statutory mandate to full accomplishment.
He emphasized that from his experiences as a Board member of the Teaching Hospital in the State, the Governor has gone beyond party politics in his services to the hospital in the understanding that the facility is a major part of his responsibility to the people.
“The Governor is a man of the people, who governs without recourse to political party affiliation, but rather with the spirit of fair service to all,” Ekweremadu submitted.
All the stakeholders prayed for the continued good health of President Buhari in his drive to take the country to the next level.
Some of the patients interviewed agreed that there has been steady improvement in the service delivery of the hospital in recent times while some indigent patients extended their gratitude to Umahi for bailing them out of the hospital through his payment of their medical bills.
While in the State, Osinbajo also commissioned a 2.8 megawatts solar hybrid power plant project at the Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-alike Ikwo, among others.
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