From George Onyejiuwa (Owerri), David Onwuchekwa (Nnewi), Jeff Amechi Agbodo (Onitsha), Geoffrey Anyanwu (Awka), Emmanuel Uzor (Abakaliki) and Petrus Obi (Enugu)
•Continued from yesterday, Tuesday, 7, 2017
It was, however, gathered that the hospital started operations during the then Eastern Region and was passed on to the old Anambra and present Anambra State, just as it has gone through several renovations and reconstruction.
A nurse, who spoke to our reporter, Mrs. Ada Onwumelu, said the hospital had been in existence before she was born during the colonial era when it was being managed by white men.
She said: “If you look at some structures here, you will know that it is an old hospital. But successive governments keep on intervening by building new structures and renovating some of the old ones. I can tell you that the hospital is one of the best hospitals in the state. We have equipment for diagnosis of various illnesses and for treatment.
“And because of the population in Onitsha, we receive several patients in the hospital on a daily basis. This hospital is competing with other tertiary hospitals or teaching hospitals. We have challenges, such as utility vehicles and ambulances. We need staff to accommodate the number of patients that turn in here daily and we also need more outpatient halls.”
A patient at the Onitsha General Hospital, Mr. Uchenna Mbaonu, said that the workers at the hospital were good, but noted that the facility lacked some equipment and drugs.
His words: “I’m here, not because this place is the best hospital in town, but due to money, this place is relatively cheaper compared to the private hospitals. That is why you see many patients, but some don’t have beds to stay. They have good doctors and nurses but some of them lacked good attitude towards the patients.
“The government should provide adequate equipment and well-stocked pharmacy in the hospital, instead of going out to buy drugs. They should build more wards with beds that can accomodate the number of patients and should provide electricity to ensure steady power in the hospital. They should provide more funds for health facilities because it will help to save more lives.”
Another health centre at Ikem Ivite Nando in Anambra East, which was built by the community and handed over to the government, has been helpful to the community since it is in a rural area.
The hospital is where the pregnant women in the area go for their antenatal, but the facility doesn’t have basic amenities, such as electricity, wards and water.
A nurse at the health centre, Miss Udoka Nwankwo, said that the hospital had been existing for many years without a borehole and electricity, adding that they had been running generating set and later stopped because they could not afford to buy diesel.
She disclosed that some prominent people in the area had been intervening by providing money for them to buy diesel.
She pointed out that other challenges they had included lack of a resident doctor, noting that the hospital has only one visiting doctor and no quarters for medical staff. She called on the government for intervention.
The Medical Director of Egbuna Adazia Hospital, Onitsha, Dr. William Egbuna, a physician, paediatrician and neurologist, said that the rot in public health facilities was caused by corruption and lack of commitment by the health workers.
Ebonyi
Ebonyi State is one of the states with good health facilities at present. This was made possible by the missionaries, who, in times past, brought in intervention drugs to save the people from various ailments.
Immediate past Minister for Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, also contributed immensely to enhance health facilities in the state.
It would be recalled that upon the creation of Ebonyi State in 1996, the young state began to put in place health facilities of its own apart from the mission hospitals scattered all over the state.
Before now, the mission hospitals like Mile Four Hospital, Ishieke, the Joint Presbyterian Hospital, Uburu, Matter Miserecoordae Hospital, Afikpo, St. Vincent the Poor Hospital, Ndubia, and many more were the only major hospitals that tackled the health challenges of the Ebonyi people.
However, with the construction of a general hospital by the Ibrahim Babangida-led administration in Abakaliki, it signalled a turning point in the Federal Government interest in health facilities in the state.
Shortly after assumption of office as the first civilian governor of Ebonyi State, Senator Sam Egwu renamed the hospital to Ebonyi State University Teaching Hospital (Specialist), Abakaliki.
With the takeover of the hospital, the state government, through the Ministry of Health, used the hospital for referrals before embarking on the construction of general hospitals in the 13 local government areas of the state.
The administration of Chief Martin Elechi, upon assumption of office, embarked on various health facility maintenances through grants to all the mission hospitals across the state.
Elechi believed that with giving financial grants to the mission hospitals, healthcare delivery would be easier, affordable and better, a situation that led to the total neglect of all the health facilities across the state owned by the state government.
For eight years, no single government-owned health facility received any facelift. Rather, Elechi spent over N5 billion on mission hospitals in the state.
Towards the end of that administration, the specialist hospital, which was the only health institution owned by the state government, was converted to a Federal Teaching Hospital, through the help of the former Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, who was the Chief Medical Director of the defunct Ebonyi State University Teaching Hospital.
The defunct Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Abakaliki, was also merged with the defunct Specialist Hospital, owned by the state government, to get what is now called the Federal Teaching Hospital (FETHA) 1 and 2, respectively.
Mrs. Josephine Elechi, wife of the former governor, also through her pet project, Mother and Child Care Initiative (MCCI), built a Vesicovaginal Fistula Centre (VVF), which was also taken over by the Federal Government and is now known as the Federal VVF Centre, Abakaliki, leaving Ebonyi State with no known health facility.
In an apparent move to address the situation, Governor David Umahi appointed three special advisers on primary healthcare in all the three senatorial zones to be in charge of health facilities in them.
According to the governor, his aim was to work round the clock with the rural and local healthcare givers in maintaining the health facilities across the state.
The idea, Umahi also said, was to give prompt attention to health challenges in the rural areas by giving day to day information about the need of the people of the area.
The governor has also constructed, commissioned and handed over a newly built and furnished Lassa fever virology centre to the Federal Government and announced the readiness of the state government to build another State University Teaching Hospital since the Federal Government had taken over the former one.
Enugu
Enugu State is blessed with three federal health institutions, which are very functional as they are providing services to the people at affordable rates.
One of them is the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Ituku/Ozalla, located at the outskirts of the Enugu capital city.
The hospital carries out trauma and research and also performs open heart surgery. It’s a tertiary institution with all the capacities that make a tertiary institution. It has all the specialties – urology, neurology, OBTYN, internal medicine, paediatrics and nephrology, just as it carries out dialysis.
Enugu State also boasts of the National Orthopaedic Hospital, which is rated as one of the best in the country. There is also the Federal Psychiatric Hospital, New Haven, which offers psychiatric care and also deals with people that have problems with addiction like alcohol, smoking, drug addiction like cocaine, heroin, marijuana, as well as counselling people, who have problems with gambling.
The state-owned tertiary institution, Enugu State University Teaching Hospital, Park Lane, is also very functional.
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Samuel Ngwu, described the state-owned hospital as the busiest amongst the tertiary hospitals because of its location.
Dr. Ngwu said: “We had problem with power supply, which was becoming very epileptic because the backup generator broke down. But Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi came to our rescue, procuring a brand new 800KVA generator to solve the problem of power in the hospital and that will become the main generator while the 500KVA, which is not up to the hospital’s power capacity, would become a back-up.
“The Accident and Emergency is very busy; the entire place is very busy and the capacity is very functional. We just purchased a new dialysis machine, five units which are the best and most people prefer to go there for dialysis.
“We also have different departments; we have neurosurgery, we have orthopaedic, we have paediatrics, we have neurology, internal medicine, OBTYN and it records the biggest deliveries in the state. The capacity and the care they are producing are quite commendable and good.
“We also have six district hospitals in the state; we have Awgu, Agbani, Isi-Uzo, Nsukka, Pauly Clinic – which is a sub-district hospital – and then Udi district hospital. We also have the primary health care centre which is under the local government. So, we have three tiers of health systems here in the state; we have primary, which is the primary healthcare centres under the local government areas, with the state Ministry of Health over-sighting; then we have the secondary tier, which is all our district hospitals and sub-districts; and then we have the tertiary, which is the ESUT Teaching Hospital, Park Lane.
“Our secondary and primary health care centres are part of the state government’s laudable free MCH. We have one of the best free MCH programmes in the country. We offer free MCH to children less than five-years old and any pregnant or delivering woman we offer free health care to them.
“Minor issues were discovered at the primary health centres where some medical personnel don’t come to work because of the local government management. Many health workers at that level are being owed several months’ salary and that is affecting morale and attendance to duty.
“I believe we have enough. Part of our problem is that the new government went from excess crude government to bailout government and there is no money to do what needs to be done to rehabilitate and equip some of these hospitals for better care for our people. Apart from that they are all functional.”
•Concluded