The management of University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Enugu, has expressed delight at the massive development projects being executed simultaneously at the permanent site of the Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Teaching Hospital and College of Medicine, Igbo-Eno, by the administration of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.

Speaking when he led members of the management team of UNTH to inspect the ongoing works at the site on Thursday, the Chief Medical Director (CMD), Prof. Obinna Onodugo, disclosed that the vision, the massive projects and the planning are “simply unbelievable” and in keeping with the World Health Organization (WHO) standard.

Prof. Onodugo stressed that the members of the UNTH management team were highly impressed and amazed, and commended Gov. Ugwuanyi for holding on tightly to the sound vision in spite of the nation’s economic, security and public health challenges.

The UNTH CMD, who was led round the ongoing projects alongside members of his team by the Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Engr. Greg Nnaji and his Health counterpart, Dr. Emmanuel Ikechukwu Obi, added that the health facility which is sited at Igbo-Eno, Enugu North Senatorial District of the state, is another laudable effort of Gov. Ugwuanyi in developing the rural areas and creating more urban centres for socio-economic expansion.

“This is development moving to a new area. With this you (Ugwuanyi) are actually opening up a new town because this will attract a lot of development around it.

This is just fantastic. We are all excited about this. We are happy and I want to say kudos to the Governor of this State (Enugu). This is visionary”, the UNTH CMD said.

It would be recalled that Gov. Ugwuanyi in his inaugural address promised that “Enugu State under us will pay a special attention to rural development because majority of our people live in the rural areas”, adding that “we will create more urban areas to boost economic growth; create fresh economic opportunities and reduce pressure on Enugu metropolis”.

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Also commending Gov. Ugwuanyi’s administration on the designs and features of the ESUT Teaching Hospital, the College of Medicine buildings and the Students’ Hostels projects at Igbo-Eno, Prof. Onodugo said: “Truly, we saw that the plan is modern; the bed to toilet ratio; there is colour-coding; even the patients’ desks are colour-coded, everything is to standard is as recommended by WHO and this is how it is supposed to be; it is just amazing.

“We saw elevators and others. We learnt that there is going to be a helipad. Recall that the whole idea of having this type of structure is to reverse medical tourism. So if you really want to reverse medical tourism and you don’t have a place where people (patients) can actually land, then it is not complete.

“In short, one of the members of the team said that now he believes that there is hope in Nigeria”.

In his remarks, the Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Engr. Nnaji, thanked the UNTH management team for the validation visit as well as their verdict “that every facility we are putting on ground here is in line with World best practices”.

According to him, “we went round, they saw the facilities; they appreciated the effort of His Excellency, the Governor in having the foresight, the vision to take the healthcare delivery of the state to another level”.

On his part, the Contractor handling the ESUT Teaching Hospital project, Architect Henry Arinze revealed that the health facility is “conceived as Nigeria’s response to the problem of medical tourism”.

He pointed out that “the governor’s vision was to provide a hospital even if himself is sick, he can be brought here; so he wanted a hospital that has provision for everything and that is what we gave him”.