Abia to Pay Medical Bills for 30 Residents in Need of Urgent Surgery

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia

Succour has come for 30 residents of Abia State in need of urgent surgery to stay alive as the state government has offered to pay the medical bills for their various operative surgical ailments.

Governor of Abia, Alex Otti gave government’s commitment to pay for the medical needs of the patients following a request by Revive, a Bulgarian nongovernmental organisation on a medical mission to Abia.

The urgent surgical needs of the Abia residents was brought to the notice of Otti at the weekend when the Revive medical team visited him at the conclusion of their 13 days medical outreach.

Led by a Nigerian of Abia origin, Mr. Smart Oriaku, the medical team thanked the governor for the support they received from the government and the people of the state during while the medical outreach lasted.

During the outreach, the team comprising, doctors, nurses, surgeons and other support medical professionals carried out  consultations, diagnosis, laboratory tests and scans, prescriptions, surgery, among others.

Otti told the visitors that his administration was committed to ensuring the comprehensive overhaul of the healthcare facilities in the state, including building new ones, in order to improve the overall well-being of the citizens.

He said that healthcare ranked among the priorities of his administration, hence the  focus on renovating and retrofitting the health facilities.

Otti further stated that his administration’s desire to revive the health sector led to the urgent measures taken to restore the accreditation of the Abia State University’s medical school and Abia State University Teaching Hospital, Aba.

Both the Medical School and the teaching hospital lost accreditation over two years ago before the inception of the present government.

Otti said that his government was currently rehabilitating about 15 general hospitals across the state, adding that a plan to establish a ‘Medical Village’ was in the offing.

The team leader, Oriaku, had earlier in his n address, said that the medical mission was solely sponsored by his family, the Late Rev. David Ukeje Oriaku family of Okaiuga Nkwoegwu, Umuahia North Local Government.

He said that the gesture was in the spirit of giving back to the society, noting that the medical team had within the 13 days the  outreach lasted, performed over 700 consultations and conducted over 60 successful surgeries.