Abia state government has promised that the State’s Children’s Specialist Hospital, Bende road Umuahia would be used for free medical services under the National Health Insurance scheme in partnership with the state government. This, he said will enable indigenes of the State and other residents from other States in the South East to benefit from free medical services.
The Special Adviser to Governor Alex Otti on healthcare service delivery, Dr Ngozi Okoronkwo broke the news after being conducted round the specialist hospital by its Coordinator Dr Ngozi Ogbonna-Erondu. Dr Okoronkwo who observed that parents have not been taking their wards to the health facility due to the wrong impression that the place is a private hospital, said insurance scheme will now take care of the cost of services provided to patients.
She said the new initiative will encourage patronage to the hospital and adding that more specialists would be deployed to take care of expected increase in patronage to the hospital. Responding, Coordinator of the Medical Centre, Ngozi Ogbonna-Erondu who said that her team has so far ran the hospital in line with its vision complained that Abia residents have not been patronizing the hospital because of the misconception that it is a private establishment and costly.
She noted that the management has been sensitizing the public on the accessibility and affordability of the services of the hospital and thanked the state government for the bold step taken to increase enrolment into the hospital.
