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THE Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital, Abakaliki, (AE-FUTHA), Prof. Robinson Onoh, has said that the hospital’s management aims to make it a global referral centre.

Onoh made the declaration on Saturday while speaking with newsmen, noting that the hospital aims to provide best medical services to Nigerians and people from all parts of the world.

The CMD said that with adequate support from both the Ebonyi and Federal governments, people all over the world will come to Nigeria to access adequate health services.

“When such happens, the state will specifically benefit because the foreigners would lodge in hotels, eat our foods thereby contributing directly or indirectly to the internally generated revenue (IGR) of the state.

“We have adequate workforce and therefore need support in terms of state of the art equipment and other logistics to make this dream a reality,” he said.

He noted that the hospital wants the state government to evolve a policy of identifying and assisting indigent patients who cannot offset their bills after treatment at the facility.

“We made a request for such assistance during our recent visit to the state governor due to the complexities caused by these patients overstaying at the hospital.

“Previous administrations in the state evolved various policies to ensure that patient care is not out of pocket expenditure.

“The Dr Sam Egwu’s administration declared free medical care for pregnant women and children under the age of five while the last administration intermittently settled hospital bills of indigent patients,” he said.

Onoh said that in the hospital’s mandate of service to humanity, it has been upgraded in areas of clinical services, training and research.

“We are one of the hospitals in the country which recently conducted research on Lassa Fever and received seven awards from the international body which organised the research.

“The Federal Government liased with the body to conduct a clinical vaccine trial on the disease and we were selected as one of the hospitals to be involved in the trials.

“The trials will be conducted in five countries as the two other hospitals from Nigeria include the Federal Medical Centre Owo, Ondo, and the Irrua Specialist Hospital, Edo,” he said.

He noted that the foreign partners will construct a clinical purpose building for the trial which is hoped to commence this year.

“A successful trial will imply that a vaccine for Lassa Fever has been produced in Nigeria for the first time,” he said. (NAN) 

24th March, 2024.

C.E.

Tags: AE-FUTHA Prof. Robinson Onoh