September 24, (THEWILL) — No fewer than one thousand, two hundred and eighty-three (1,283) indigent Ebonyi people suffering different ailments and admitted in forty-seven (47) different hospitals across the one hundred and seventy-one wards of the State have benefited from the third phase of the Ebonyi State Health Insurance Agency (EBSHIA).
Executive Secretary, Ebonyi State Health Insurance Agency (EBSHIA), Dr Divine Igwe, disclosed this to journalists in Abakaliki while presenting the report of the third phase of the medical and surgical intervention project by the Ebonyi State Governor’s wife, Mrs Mary-Maudlin Ukamaka Nwifuru, in collaboration with EBSHIA.
According to him, on the day of the flag-off of the third phase of EBSHIA medical and surgical intervention, out of the 1,283 Ebonyi people registered for surgery, 626 of them were for eye screening and eyeglasses, and 113 of them were to benefit from eye surgeries.
He further added that about 518 of them were to benefit from hernia surgeries, 126 from fibroid surgeries, and 13 of them were to benefit from lump surgeries.
Igwe maintained that the best way to manage health finance is through a health insurance scheme and commended the governor of the state, Francis Nwifuru, for investing in a health insurance scheme.
He said, “He is one governor who understands the needs of the people. No wonder he introduced the people’s charter of need mantra. One of the greatest needs of the people, anywhere you go, is healthcare.
“No matter what you are looking for, if you are not healthy, you will forget all of them, abandon all of them and concentrate on issues of your health. And he came in, he decided to kill, to destroy, and to abandon the health tourism that had been in existence. Now people can stay in our state, assess their health as much as they want to assess it.
“People who have never had access to health, probably because of finances, can now go to the hospital and get themselves treated. And that is what he is doing. This is the only state where both the governor and the wife of the governor have an interest in the health sector.
“But the governor came into this state for the very first time. Somebody who is not from the health sector understood the economies of the health sector, decided to end medical tourism, and decided to end the JAPA syndrome that people are experiencing. That’s the greatest thing that the governor did for the health sector.
“We flagged off the third phase of the medical and surgical interventions. That will tell you that we have had the first phase, we have had the second phase, and this is the third phase.
“This third phase is done in collaboration with Her Excellency, Chief (Mrs) Mary Maudlin Uzamaka Ogbonna Nwifuru, and coincidentally, she’s the one who came and did the flag of the program and did some hospital visitation with us that same day.
“She was quite impressed when she got to the hospital, saw many people who had already been operated on. She was quite grateful. And I am mostly grateful to her for her dedication, especially in terms of health.
“She’s the only person who understands health financing. In health financing, if we must make things work, channel the money that is coming to health through health insurance. Because of health insurance, you will be able to develop hospitals.
“Somebody who was able to enrol 300 sickle cell warriors into health insurance, and you know that sickle cell warriors go to the hospital almost daily.
“She enrolled 4,078 people into health insurance, people who were pregnant. As we speak now, the 4,078 of them have all delivered their babies. Imagine how much it would take to conduct a delivery. And that was already done free of charge for the 4,078 of them. Those deliveries I mentioned were often performed through caesarean sections.
“How much is a caesarean session now? And that had already been done free of charge for the number of people for whom such were done. Therefore, it is only those who are not around who may not understand what these people are doing. They carved out their needs.
One of the beneficiaries, 21-year-old Ewa Peter Cherechi from Ezza North, who underwent free hernia surgery at General Hospital Onueke, praised the government for saving his life and urged for the scheme’s sustainability.
Sunday Ogbu is a professional journalist with eight - twelve years experience that had worked with various print and online media. Sunday specializes in news reporting with the aim of educating his readers on current social, political and economic occurences within his area of coverage. Sunday is a strong force to work with in the media industry and uses his positive attitude and tireless energy to encourage others to work hard and succeed. Sunday is inspired daily by his wife and their four children. In his free time, Sunday likes sight-seeing, reading and discussing issues of societal interest.
