AEFUTHA CMD, Onoh speaks on his appointment by Tinubu, loss of 15 health workers to Lassa fever 

….applauds Tinubu over his appointment,

By Uchenna Okeh, Abakaliki

The Chief Medical Director of the Alex Ekwueme Federal University Teaching Hospital Abakaliki, AEFUTHA, Ebonyi State, Robinson Chukwudi Onoh  has reiterated the preparedness of the hospital to tackle the scourge of Lassa fever and other viral diseases in the Southeast region and the country at large

Onoh who marked his one- year-in-office recently, applauded President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for appointing him as the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, adding that the hospital has come of age and can now deliver quality medical services in full scale.

The Chief Medical Director, Onoh, who spoke to newsmen in Abakaliki capital of Ebonyi State, however, decried the loss of fifteen medical health workers to Lassa fever in the past years.

“Lassa fever came to our hospital like a big problem, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. When Lassa came to this hospital, that was in 2005, it came in a very bad way because it took away the lives of health care workers here. These were very active and vibrant young workers.”

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“Doctors died. Nurses died. Health attendants died and succumbed to Lassa. I think we’ve lost about 15 health care workers to Lassa in this hospital, and that brought in a lot of fear in the hospital.”

“But I want to appreciate our partners because during that period, we had support from all the partners, WHO, NCDC, MSF, and even our neighbouring institution, Irruwa Specialist Teaching Hospital.”

“They all came to help us build capacity in terms of training in  Infection Prevention and Control, and also in terms of treatment. I also want to commend some of our health care workers who also did their best in making sure that those who come down with Lassa are treated.”

The Chief Medical Director further pointed out that “the scourge of Lassa fever is being combated by our partnership with international research bodies, and we are currently running a Lassa fever vaccine trial. This research is the light at the end of a very dark tunnel for us. With the collaboration of the partners,  we are building a dedicated Vaccine Trial Complex that will be dedicated just for research studies.”

Onoh also enumerated other challenges facing the hospital to include outrageous billing by the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, EEDC, and lack of sophisticated medical equipment to enhance medical services in the hospital.

According to him: “The challenges are bound, but the major one is power. Power has been so epileptic, and the bills that come from EEDC are quite high. You can imagine this hospital being billed over N40 million in a month. Such billing makes it difficult for us to sustain other sections of the hospital when we pay for power at such a high amount.”

“So power is a very major challenge that we have here. Even in providing alternative power supply when the EEDC National Grid is not on. We need to get diesel to run the system. Running such a seamless power supply structure has proven to be very expensive and challenging to maintain.”

“The hospital also would provide enhanced medical services if we have more medical equipment like laser machines for surgeries, CT-scan machines, MRI machines, and other sophisticated diagnostic equipment.”

Onoh also enumerated his administration’s achievements within the one year in office to include; “we’ve been able to do things that have aligned to the initiative of Mr. President and the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, and in doing that, this hospital has started Electronic Medical Record System in full scale, meaning that we are going paperless, and we’ve also been able to bring up areas that are quite innovative.”

“We’ve been able to start an IVF centre where we’ve done IVF procedures in batches. In our first batch, we had a 70% success rate, so it’s one of the areas that I talk about when I want to talk about achievement, because through that, we’ve been able to give hope to the hopeless. People who have gone far and wide trying to achieve conception came into this hospital, paid very little, and many of them have triplets in gestation.”

“So it’s also an area where we’ve turned this hospital into a hub for medical tourism because we have people coming from Cameroon, Ghana, and all parts of Africa to access this healthcare service. We’ve been able to improve our clinical services at the same time. Our dialysis centre is one of the best in the country.”

“Our Neurosurgeons do great surgeries. In Orthopaedics, we have done about 19 hip replacement and 23 knee replacement surgeries in this hospital in the past year. We also turned our Emergency Medicine department into a department that has accreditation for training doctors from other hospitals in Emergency Medicine.”

“Within my first year in office, we were able to meet the Coordinating Minister Of Health and Social Welfare, alongside with a team from Royal College of Emergency Medicine, United Kingdom on how to advance Emergency Medicine in Nigeria” he stressed. 

He further commended the Executive Governor of Ebonyi State and his wife, Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru & Mrs Uzoamaka Mary-Maudline Ogbonna Nwifuru, the Minister of Works David Nweze Umahi, senator Onyekachi Nwaebonyi, the House of Representatives member, Idu Igariwe, and other prominent leaders of the state for their contributions towards the progress and development going on in the hospital.