Dr. Peter Mbah the Enugu governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has instituted a health insurance scheme with a premium worth two million naira for 100 indigent persons in Nkanu East.
This was done earlier yesterday in commemoration of the one year anniversary of the St. Cecilia Memorial Hospital, Owo, Nkanu East LGA, built and equipped by his charity, Peter Mbah Foundation and commissioned in November last year.
The health insurance intervention was organized in partnership with the Enugu State Agency for Universal Health Coverage pursuant to the Foundation’s objective of bringing quality and affordable healthcare to everyone in Enugu, especially the indigent citizens and residents of the state.
The manager of the Foundation, Ms. Chika Mbah speaking on the development said that having functioned for one year, it was discovered that poverty posed a huge threat to getting healthcare, saying this inspired Dr. Mbah to make the move to capture some indigent persons in the health insurance scheme to afford them good healthcare.
On the inception of the hospital, she stated that the intention was to get standard healthcare closer to the people in the rural area and reduce child and maternal mortality.
According to Ms. Chika, the hospital with a fully equipped pharmacy, X-ray room, theatre, ultrasound, delivery room, two general wards, three private wards, an incubator, a laboratory, a residential area for healthcare workers, and many more, partnered with the Congregation of the Daughters of Divine Love of the Catholic Church to get health workers resident in the hospital, with other visiting and committed doctors.
“We have experienced reverend sisters in the medical fields working here, and doctors visiting. We also have Dr. Nwachi, a consultant gynecologist at the UNTH from Amankanu that comes here every Thursday to give free services as his own way of helping the people out. Among the workers, three are resident in the hospital including a midwife, Rev. Sister Kelechi with 49 years experience in the field,” she said.
She explained that due to the level of poverty in the area, patients were still allowed to pay at their own rates while the Peter Mbah Foundation continued to foot the bills of the hospital in general.
On the patients, Ms Chika said that beyond the Owo community, people never ceased coming from other communities like Amankanu, Oruku, Amechi Idodo, Nkalagu and many more.
She called on other dignitaries of the community and the state to help with the resources to enroll more needy persons into the health insurance progamme, saying that will ensure quality healthcare for more people in the rural communities and reduce preventable mortality cases.
Monica Ajah, the first patient at the hospital at its inception, expressed joy at how better she had been since she began receiving care from the hospital and her gratitude to Dr. Peter Mbah.
“I am grateful that this hospital is here. I was the first patient to be treated when they started. I was barely walking then, but I am well now because of the care the nurses and doctors here give me. Peter Mbah is a good man. God bless him for deciding to bless his people. May God bless him more and keep him,’ she said.
The resident midwife Rev. Sister Kelechi, fondly called Granny, didn’t hold back about how happy she was about the establishment and the people, “I rejoice with the people because I know the statistics here and the progress so far. Today, they woke me up at 1am to help a dying lady. She eventually lost her pregnancy, but we were able to save her. And we have faced many situations like that. Now imagine what would have happened if this hospital wasn’t here,” she added.
