The Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu, has lauded President Muhammadu Buhari for the Federal Government-funded COVID-19 interventions that are yielding positive impact on service delivery in the facility.
The Medical Director, Prof. Monday Igwe, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Enugu that the Federal Government had funded four major projects in its COVID-19 intervention package in the hospital.
Igwe said that the projects, for those already completed, were having real day-to-day impact on service delivery and protection of both staff and patients of the hospital.
According to him, the hospital really appreciates President Buhari for bolstering and funding healthcare delivery by the interventions meant to serve Nigerians, especially those living in South-East and other neighbouring zones.
He said: “First, is the recently completed advance molecular test laboratory that has capacity to take test and analyse samples of 100 people per day.
“The advance molecular test laboratory is meant for COVID-19 test in the hospital, as well as other virus and high precision test, which before now the hospital has to source such service in sister federal hospitals, at a fee.
“So with the advance molecular laboratory, we can conduct instant COVID-19 and other test on our patients and get quick results to attend to their health needs.
“Second, the Federal Government has completed the 10-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) building.
“The ICU building had been equipped with the state-of-the-art medical equipment to attend to emergencies and intensive care situations at the hospital.
“This development has put the hospital at par with other tertiary health institutions in the country in that direction”.
Igwe said that the intervention had provided the hospital with large quantity of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), adding: “We now have enough of PPE for staff to use daily”.
“This third item in the intervention, PPE provision, was a serious burden to the hospital before the Federal Government intervention, as daily the hospital spends scarce resource purchasing it at exorbitant prices.
The medical director said that the fourth intervention was the ongoing construction of a 20-bed Isolation Centre in the hospital meant for isolation of patients suffering from infectious diseases such as COVID-19, Lassa fever, Ebola, among others.
“You will agree with me that the need for isolation centre is a necessity for every modern tertiary health institution.
“We are grateful to the Federal Government that soon we will have ours in the hospital,” he said.
Igwe noted that the recent interventions had prevented brain drain in the hospital, as well as daily complaints of lack of registered by medical staff of the hospital. (NAN)
