By Dave Osho

The Senate Committee Chairman on Primary Healthcare and Communicable Diseases, Senator Chukwuka Utazi has donated truck-loads of medical drugs and hospital equipment worth millions of naira to six health institutions in the Enugu North Constituency.

Speaking during the presentation, Utazi said the constituency outreach project was targeted at the grassroots to complement the national campaign at attaining universal health coverage by 2030.

He explained that equipping the hospitals with modern facilities and drugs would improve daily services to the people and reduce the high mortality rate from treatable diseases in local communities.

The benefitting health institutions include; Bishop Shanahan Hospital, Nsukka, Faith Foundation Hospital, Nsukka, Aru ike Ndi Oya Hospital, Adani, St Mary’s Hospital, Enugu Ezike, Calvary Hospital Opi and St Victor’s Hospital, Opi Agu.

The lawmaker urged the benefitting hospitals to utilise the materials effectively, and ensure improved access to healthcare in the area.

He said the items donated, when properly used by the hospitals would subsidize the cost of medical treatment for the people in the area and improve the life expectancy of vulnerable groups in the rural communities.

Representatives of the Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Nsukka, Most Rev Prof Godfrey Igwebike Onah, and that of the Anglican Communion, Rt Rev Aloysius Agbo commended the lawmaker and prayed for God’s blessing upon his endeavours.

In another development, health experts have said the passing of the National Health Emergency Bill, sponsored by Senator Utazi by the National Assembly was a political masterstroke that would redefine the nation’s response in the strategic war against pandemic and other emerging global health hazards.

If signed into law, the new legislation named; “Bill for an Act to Provide for an effective national framework for the control of outbreaks of infectious diseases and other events endangering public health and requiring public health emergency measures and for other related matters (SB. 413),” would provide for an effective and efficient legal and administrative machinery to address the challenges posed by public health emergencies as defined under this Act.

It will also ensure a timely response, control, and management of public health emergencies.

Vanguard News