Enugu state Government has reiterated its commitment to strengthening health care and education advancement, assuring provision of quality medical care services to the people.
The government said it had put measures in place to flush out quackery in the medical practice, warning that imposters will be prosecuted.
Pix-: SSG, Prof Chidiebere Onyia
The state Governor, Dr. Peter Mbah disclosed that on Thursday , while speaking to newsmen at the 49Th Annual General Meeting and 48Th Scientific Conference of the Ophthalmological Society of Nigeria, holding in Enugu, with the Theme,”The evolving face of Ophthalmology implications for education, practice and research”, and topic, “AI for Ophthalmology: Today and Future”.
Represented by the Secretary to the State Government , Prof Chidiebere Onyia, Governor Mbah said,”We have just recently set up a team to address quackery in Enugu State, where we will ensure that those who have no qualifications have no business being in the health facility.”
He said the State Government had set up a team to go after quacks and Honorable Commissioner for Health ,Professor Ikechukwu Obi was leading the team. The Governor added that the state government will prosecute those people to ensure sanity and quality healthcare delivery.
On strengthening the health sector, Governor Mbah said , “Enugu State is a center right now, for educational and health advancement.”, disclosing that , the state Executive Council had approved the establishment of Enugu International hospital on Rangers avenue, Independence layout, Enugu.
He said the International hospital will create opportunity for a lot of specialist areas. It will be fully equipped,and manned by people that are very knowledgeable in hospital management, with quality academics and health practitioners . Me
The Governor said the state Government had done 260 primary health care facilities, has secondary and tertiary hospitals that were working.
He added that they were working with the Commissioner for health and couple of other partners, to build a partnership that can strengthen both teaching and learning , the research processing and address the services that the hospital ought to do . “This is very important to the Government of Enugu state, Dr Peter Ndubuisii Mbah is very focused of building a strong partnership like this , of supporting educational and health advancement in Enugu-state”, he said.
On jappa syndrome, he said Enugu State government was paying 100 percent COHAS to Medical practitioners in Enugu. “We are now going to equip our hospitals to allow our young Doctors and Nurses to be able to practice in a way that their contemporaries globally are supposed to.
“The international hospital project is going to be a land mark project that demonstrates this. We are going to build partnership with different foundations, institutions to build more health facilities. More importantly, in the training aspect of it. We will continue to ensure that we enhance the qualities of those that practice there,” he said.
The Governor highlighted some of his administration ‘s achievements so far, which included construction / reconstruction of 71 Urban Roads and 20 rural roads, award of contracts for 141 Urban roads and 30 Rural roads , establishment of Enugu Smart Green school, where Robotics, Artificial into (AI), Mechatronics and other subjects were taught. The state government also allocated 30%of it’s annual budget to Education
Fielding questions from Newsmen on the practice of Ophthalmology, Enugu state Commissioner for Health,, Prof Ikechukwu Obi. said the practice of Ophthalmology is a specialist practice which takes place in both government and private sectors.
“Enugu State has had a State teaching hospital for several years and Enugu is also hosting a federal teaching hospital , so, you can see very clearly that Ophthalmological practice has been in Enugu in the University of Nigeria teaching hospital and Esut teaching hospital, Parklane.,and soon it will also be at the State University of Medical and Applied Sciences teaching hospital, Igbo-Eno, and even the multiple specialist eye clinic can now be possible because we are bringing in the Enugu state international hospital that is going to be right in the center of Enugu ,at Rangers Avenue and then, every level of specialist eye care can be possible in that area of specialization,” Obi said..
Speaking on prevention of blindness, the Immediate past President of OSN, Dr Bade Ogundipe, said someone can pledge his or her eye before he or she dies and inform his family ,so that when he or she passes on, within a short period his or her cornea will be harvested. and it will give a new lease of life of vision to other people who were prone to glacoma.
On his part, an Expert , Prof Sebastian Nwosu, who spoke on the high prevalence rate of glacoma in the South East zone of Nigeria, said it was genetical . He explained that so, because ” the South East is genetically prone to glacoma.”.
Nwosu noted that ,”the most important thing is to spread the news that glacoma runs in the blood so that people who have it and their relations will go to hospital.for early check. He advised people , especially women not to apply unorthodox medicine in the eyes.
“Do not put urine, breastmilk in the eye. Do not use any unorthodox medicine. If any member of your family has been diagnosed as having eye disease, do not wait until it comes to you. Go for preventative check,” Prof Nwosu advised.
Earlier, the chairman , Local Organizing Committee , Prof Nkiru Akaraigwe , a Professor of Ophthalmology said the meeting was aimed at encouraging their members to be equipped with modern technology.
She said the theme was apt because many things had changed,” the way we examine patients, the way we teach, the way we do research have changed and we had to undergo the training to catch up with the modern realities. .
According to her, Ophthalmologists are medical doctors who studied medicine and went further to specialize in eye care. They oversee every aspect of eye care .
On the challenges they had, she said there were so many people who wanted eye care services but few Ophthalmologists to serve them.
Prof Akaraigwe blamed jappa syndrome as a major challenge that has affected the population of their members. “There is a large population of under -served patients”, and few Ophthalmologists , in the neighborhood of 300 and it’s a major challenge because those practicing were few, and over burdened ,”she said.
She commended Governor Mbah for the support his administration gave to the Society.
Author- Maureen Ikpeama