Umahi teaching hospital provides free medical treatment to over 8,000 vulnerable people in Ebonyi
By Jeff Agbodo, Abakaliki
The David Umahi Federal University Teaching Hospital (DUFUTH), Uburu, Ebonyi State, has provided free medical treatment to at least 8,000 vulnerable people in the state.
The beneficiaries include children, the elderly, indigent persons, and pregnant women, through its first phase of medical extension programme and outreaches across the state.
The medical extension programme was carried out in four recently activated rural primary healthcare centres handed over to the hospital by the state government.
Professor Uzoma Maryrose Agwu, Chief Medical Director of DUFUTH, disclosed this while addressing a visiting team from the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, led by Permanent Secretary, Ms. Daju Kachollom.
Kachollom was on a tour of the hospital as part of her two-day official visit to Ebonyi State to flag-off the nationwide cancer awareness and free cancer screening programme.
Professor Agwu enumerated challenges facing the hospital, including lack of steady water supply, shortage and epileptic power supply, and manpower shortages, among others. She appealed for intervention from the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Health to address these challenges.
The CMD commended President Bola Tinubu for the impact of his Renewed Hope Agenda on the health sector and other areas of the country. She also praised the competence and dedication of the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, and the Permanent Secretary in driving the agenda to benefit DUFUTH and other federal health institutions.
Professor Agwu noted that DUFUTH has made significant strides in its mission to break the tide of foreign medical tourism through excellent breakthroughs in various areas of medical practice. She added that the hospital has become a centre of excellence in clinical and internship training and has effectively discharged its corporate social responsibilities in free medical examination and treatment, including cancer screening.
“Despite challenges as a new teaching hospital, DUFUTH has continued to forge ahead. In the last three years, we have rolled out several medical outreaches within and outside our host community, offering screenings for cervical cancer, blood sugar levels, eye exams, routine dental check-ups, blood pressure checks, de-worming exercises, nutritional talks, distribution of drugs and interventional items, and have deployed our professionals to oversee these medical initiatives,” she said.
The hospital has also screened for diseases such as hypertension, malaria, tuberculosis, and others that, if discovered early and treated, could be cured.
Professor Agwu announced that the hospital has established a thriving College of Health Technology, which will soon commence its third batch of student admissions, and a College of Nursing Sciences, soon to be launched. She appealed for increased budgetary allocation to enable the hospital to continue delivering on its vision and mission as the newest and most proficient Federal Teaching Hospital in the South East.
“The weight of our budgetary allocation is minimal compared to the volume of structural and super-structural facilities required to keep the Teaching Hospital afloat and sustain its standard as a center of medical excellence.
“We plead that DUFUTH pass as one of the receivers of the numerous benefits that flow from government”,she emphasized.
Ms. Kachollom, in her address, described cancer as one of the non-communicable diseases ravaging Nigerians. She advocated for preventive rather than curative measures, stating that teaching citizens how to live healthy lives would reduce medical expenses and hospital visits.
She noted that since President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, the health sector has improved, and the Federal Ministry of Health has decided on a 4-point agenda focusing on governance and leadership, quality health outcome, and unlocking the value chain.
The Permanent Secretary expressed pride in Professor Agwu’s leadership and professional ingenuity, which has accounted for the hospital’s steady progress, and pledged to deliver the hospital’s requests to the appropriate quarters.
During the visit, the Permanent Secretary commissioned newly procured electric stretcher trolleys and the hospital’s newly equipped Physiotherapy centre, and flagged off the hospital’s free cancer screening exercise.
The post Umahi teaching hospital provides free medical treatment to over 8,000 vulnerable people in Ebonyi appeared first on Vanguard News.
