Mrs Nwifuru Understood Health Financing-Divine Igwe

…As 1,283 Ebonyians Benefit From 3rd Phase Of EBSHIA Medical, Surgery Intervention

By Alex Odeh

The Executive Secretary Executive Secretary of Ebonyi State Health Insurance Agency (EBSHIA) , Dr. Divine Igwe, has said that the only person who understood health financing is the wife of Ebonyi State Governor, Mary-Maudlin Nwifuru.

Dr. Divine Igwe disclosed this to journalists in Abakaliki while presenting the report of the third phase of medical and surgical intervention project by the Ebonyi State Governor’s wife, Mrs Mary-Maudlin Ukamaka Nwifuru in collaboration with EBSHIA.

No fewer than one thousand, two hundred and eighty-three (1,283) indigent Ebonyi people suffering different ailments and admitted in forty-seven (47) different hospitals across the one hundred and seventy-one wards of the State have benefited from the third phase of the Ebonyi State Health Insurance Agency (EBSHIA) .

According to him, on the day of the flag-off of the third phase of EBSHIA medical and surgical intervention, out of the 1,283 Ebonyi people registered for surgery, 626 number of them were for eye screening and eyeglasses and 113 number of them were to benefit for eye surgeries.

He further added that about 518 number of them were to benefit from hernia surgeries, 126 number from fibroid surgeries while 13 number of them were to benefit from lump surgeries.

Igwe maintained that the best way to manage health finance is through health insurance scheme and commended the governor of the state, Francis Nwifuru for investing in health insurance scheme.

He said, “He is one governor that understands the need of the people. No wonder he introduced the people’s charter of need mantra. One of the greatest need of the people, anywhere you go to, is the health need.

“No matter what you are looking for, if you are not healthy, you will forget all of them, abandon all of them and concentrate on issues of your health. And he came in, he decided to kill, to destroy, and to abandon the health tourism that has been in existence. Now people can stay in our state, assess health as much as they want to assess it.

“People that have never had access to health, probably because of finance, can now go to the hospital and get themselves treated. And that is what he is doing. This is the only state where both the governor and the wife of the governor have interest in the health sector.

“But the governor came into this state for the very first time. Somebody that is not from health sector understood the economies of health sector, decided to end the medical tourism, decided to end the JAPA syndrome that people are doing. That’s the greatest thing that the governor did for the health sector.

“We flagged off the third phase of the medical and surgical interventions. That will tell you that we have had the first phase, we have had the second phase, and this is the third phase.

“This third phase is done in collaboration with Her Excellency, Chief Mrs. Mary Maudlin Uzamaka Ogbonna Nwifuru, and coincidentally, she’s the one that came and did the flag of the program and did some hospital visitation with us that same day.

“She was quite impressed when she got to the hospital, saw many people that were already operated. She was quite grateful. And I am mostly grateful to her for her dedication, especially in terms of health.

“She’s the only person that understood health financing. In health financing, if we must make things to work, channel the money that is coming to health through health insurance. Because from health insurance, you will be able to develop the hospitals.

“Somebody that was able to enroll 300 number of sickle cell warriors into health insurance, and you know that sickle cell warriors go to the hospital almost on a daily basis.

“She enrolled 4,078 number of people into health insurance, people that were pregnant. As we speak now, the 4,078 number of them have all delivered their babies. Imagine how much it would take to conduct a delivery.And that was already done free of charge for the 4,078 number of them. Those deliveries that I mentioned, a lot of them were done through caesarean sessions.

“How much is caesarean session now? And that had already been done free of charge for the number of people that such were done through. So it is only him that is not around that may not understand what these people are doing. They carved out their needs.

One of the beneficiaries, 21-year-old Ewa Peter Cherechi from Ezza North, who underwent free hernia surgery at General Hospital Onueke, praised the government for saving his life and urged for the scheme’s sustainability.