…Lament outrageous billing by EEDC, lack of basic modern equipment
JACOB OGODO, Abakaliki
The Chief Medical Director of the Alex Ekwueme Federal Teaching Hospital Abakaliki, AE-FETHA, Dr Robinson Chukwudi Onoh has decried the loss of fifteen medical health workers to Lassa fever in the state.
He reiterated the preparedness of the hospital to tackle the scourge of Lassa fever and other viral diseases in the South East region and the country as a whole.
The Chief Medical Director made this disclosure while briefing newsmen in Abakaliki on the state of the teaching hospital.
Onoh who marked his one year in office recently, however, applauded President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for appointing him as the Chief medical director of the hospital, adding that the hospital has come of age and can now deliver quality electronic medical recording in full scale.
“When I was talking, I said Lassa fever came to our hospital like a big problem, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. When Lassa came to this hospital, that was in 2005, it came in a very bad way because it took away the lives of healthcare workers here. And the healthcare workers were the very active and vibrant ones.
“Doctors died. Nurses died Health attendants died and succumbed to Lassa. I think we’ve lost about 15 healthcare workers to Lassa in this hospital. And that has brought in a lot of fear in the hospital.
“But I want to appreciate partners because, during that period, we had support from all the partners, WHO, NCDC, MSF, and even our neighboring institution, Iruwa Special Teaching Hospital.
“They all came to help us build capacity in terms of training, in terms of infection prevention and control, and also in terms of treatment. I want to also commend some of our health care workers who also did their best in making sure that those who come down with Lassa are treated.
Onoh also enumerated other challenges facing the hospital to include; outrageous billing by the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, EEDC and lack of basic modern equipment in the hospital.
According to him: “The challenges are bound, but the major ones are power. Power has been so epileptic, and the bills that come from EEDC are quite much. You can imagine this hospital, you are asked to pay over N40 million in a month. So that makes it difficult for us to sustain other sections of the hospital when you pay for power.
“So power is a very major challenge that we have here. Other challenges we have is, of course, the power, providing diesel and maintaining generators. You notice that when the EEDC, National Grid, is not on, you need to get diesel to run the system.
“When these generators break down, you also need to also at the same time repair them. So power is a very big challenge that we have. Other challenges we have include basic modern equipment that we don’t have” he said.
Onoh also enumerated his administration’s achievements within the one year office to include;”we’ve been able to do things that can be aligned to the initiative of the Minister of Health and Social Welfare, and also Mr. President, and in doing that, this hospital has started electronic medical recording in full scale, meaning that we are going paperless, and we’ve also been able to bring up areas that are quite innovative.
“We’ve been able to start an IVF center where we’ve done batches. In our first batch, we had a 70% success rate, so it’s one of the areas that I talk about when I want to talk about achievement, because through that, we’ve been able to give hope to the hopeless, people who have gone far and wide trying to achieve conception, came into this hospital, paid very little, and many of them have triplets to in gestation and single term pregnancies.
“So it’s also an area we’ve turned this hospital to a hub for medical tourism, because we have people coming from Cameroon, coming from all parts of the country to access this healthcare. We’ve been able to improve our clinical services at the same time. Our dialysis center is one of the best in the country.
“Our neurosurgeons do great surgeries. We’ve done about 19 hip replacements and 23 knee replacements in this hospital.We also turned our emergency medicine department into a department that has accreditation for training emergency doctors.
“Within my first year in office, we were able to meet the Coordinating Minister Of Health and Social Welfare, alongside with a team from Royal College of Emergency Medicine, on how to advance emergency medicine in Nigeria” he stressed.
He further commended the governor of Ebonyi State and his wife, Francis Nwifuru, the minister of works David Umahi, senator Onyekachi Nwaebonyi, the house of Representatives member, Idu Igariwe and other prominent leaders of the state for their contributions towards the progress development going on in the hospital.
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