Enyinna Omoke, Abakaliki
The Chief Medical Director of David Umahi Federal University Teaching Hospital(DUFUTH), Prof. Mrs. Uzoma Agwu has said that the world-class hospital with state-of-the-art facilities is ready to reverse medical tourism in Nigeria because the brand new hospital has all the medical facilities and manpower to offer exceptional medical services to patients in any part of the world.
Prof Agwu made this known while addressing newsmen in her office recently at DUFUTH. The CMD stated that the hospital is ever-ready and has all it takes to provide all the medical services needed in any part of the globe.
According to her, DUFUTH which is located at Uburu in Ebonyi State has gone far in providing medical treatments to people since all the departments have been activated to function effectively to provide quality medical services to patients at affordable rates.
To ensure the welfare of staff, the CMD explained that all staff of the hospital have been registered into the IPPIS platform and National Trust Fund Agency of the Federal Government of Nigeria so that they can be paid as Federal staff.
`DUFUTH is the most beautiful hospital in Nigeria. We have state-of-the-art facilities. We started about a year ago. I looked at the beautiful structure and said to myself, this is a calling not just an appointment. By the grace of God, this institution will reverse medical tourism in Nigeria because we have state-of-the-art facilities and manpower, and so there will be no need to leave the shores of this country to any other facility to receive medical care. We set out to build a hospital that can provide everything. And we started registering our staff into the IPPIS platform of the Federal government so that they can be paid as Federal staff. As a brand new institution, we also set up all the departments.
`When we came in here, we were handed over a brand new hospital but right inside the hospital, we don’t have seats and tables, and that is why we started setting up the departments with things that human beings can use to carry out their function effectively. We were able to correct some other things that we were not able to put right in the structure; you know when you start using a a new structure, you are bound to correct some mistakes to get it right. We have a 5 storey building here and we activated all the floors we have.
`We have a Medicine department, ONG department, surgery, dental, and community medicine amongst others have been activated. We were also able to get the manpower that we needed to provide services to patients. Initially, we have full-time consultants, about 31 of them. But because they were not enough, we went ahead to get specialists in other areas like gynecologists, neurosurgeons, pediatricians, family physicians, and many others to complement what we have.
`After the enrollment, activation of all the departments, and full payment of my staff. We also registered our staff into the National Trust Fund Agency so that the welfare of my staff is assured because I am staff oriented CMD. My priority is my staff first before any other thing. When you have a nice and well-motivated staff, your patients will lack nothing.
`We were able to activate the renal, eye, oncology, physiotherapy, and cancer centers, amongst others have started providing medical services to people.
`We have also commenced the electronic recording of everything we do in this hospital. We also have a Radiology department; we have a full complement of radiological services for people. We have CT scans, X-ray machines, mammograph machines, MRI, etc. All of them have been activated.’ Prof. Agwu explained.
Health: DUFUTH sets to reverse medical tourism in Nigeria—CMD
