ORBA INDIGENES REJOICE AS GOV. UGWUANYI LAYS FOUNDATION STONE FOR SPECIALIST HOSPITAL

Rt. Hon. Chief Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Enugu State Governor

The governor of Enugu State, Rt. Hon. Chief Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, has laid the foundation stone of a 200-bed specialist hospital in Orba, Udenu Local Government Area. The governor, while speaking at the site of the proposed specialist hospital, made it clear that his government would not stop the process of delivering on his campaign promises in transforming the state into a desirable destination for medical tourist that would also draw investors within the country and from countries in the African continent to the coal city state.

He received plaudit for his people-oriented programmes from Mrs. Angela Izegbune, a representative of the World Health Organization, who extoled him for taking such a bold move in the health sector in less than 100 days in office.

While addressing the huge crowd that witnessed the foundation laying ceremony, the governor stated that the 200-Bed Ultra-Modern Specialist Hospital, on completion, would bring succor to the teeming population of residents of communities in the densely populated Enugu-North senatorial zone of the state and reduce the current pressure on the existing two tertiary health institutions in the state whose facilities can no longer carry the huge patients-traffic at the moment.

Gburugburu, as Gov. Ugwuanyi is popularly known as, stated that a greater percentage of Nigerians who seek medical attention and assistance abroad are from the South Eastern region and that Enugu contributes a good percentage of them.

The governor, who was Udenu Local Government Area Chairmanship aspirant in the year 2003, further made it clear that his government will continue to provide a conducive atmosphere for the effective discharge of medicare in the state.

Governor Ugwuanyi used the opportunity to praise the host communities of the hospital project like Orba, Imilike, Ovoko and Iheaka, for their kind understanding evidenced in their gesture of freely donating land and other forms of assistance for the site while assuring the speedy completion of the project, adding that apart from providing specialist services for the people in the rural communities, the health facility would also help to check current rural-to-urban drift syndrome that has bogged down Nigerian society for years now.