Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
At least five surgeries were successfully conducted yesterday as the free medical mission by the Association of Nigeria Physicians in the Americas, ANPA, began Thursday in Abia State.
ANPA National President, Dr Chinyere Anyogu, who disclosed this during a press conference Saturday in Umuahia, expressed satisfaction with the successful commencement of the medical mission.
She said that the ANPA medical team members were in high spirit to deliver despite flight delays in the aftermath of the 3.8 magnitude earthquake that struck New York City Friday night.
Dr Anyogu said that following the natural disaster, flights of some of the team members at New York City were canceled.
The ANPA President explained that due to the high number of surgery cases to be handled by the team, they decided to commence surgeries on Friday instead of waiting till Monday when it was initially scheduled for.
This, she explained was to enable the team handle all the cases before the end of the mission on April 14.
She expressed satisfaction with the level of preparations on ground by the Abia State Government and other partners including the Academic Core Values Orientation Initiative (ACVOI), and Rotary International.
On the choice of Abia State for this year’s ANPA medical mission, the ANPA helmsman said it was taken to complement the efforts of Gov. Alex Otti towards improving the Abia health sector.
“We saw a lot of the visionary actions of Gov. Alex Otti, and that’s why we chose Abia.
“We partner with local stakeholders to perform service delivery, capacity building and advocacy towards making Abians and Nigerians enjoy quality health care.”
Adding his voice, the Chairman, Local Organising Committee and the Chief Medical Director, CMD, Federal Medical Centre, FMC, Umuahia, Professor Azubuike Onyebuchi, said that every necessary arrangement needed for the success of the mission, had been put in place.
He affirmed that surgeries had already commenced ahead of the earlier scheduled date to enable them deal with the high volume of booked cases.
“We have selected 20 general surgery and gynaecology cases from each of the 17 LGAs totaling 340, besides 500 eye surgery cases. We have put in place everything needed to succeed, we are good to go,” Professor Onyebuchi declared.
Speaking also, the National President of Abia State National Association of North America comprising USA and Canada, High Chief Enyinnaya Alamba, also expressed satisfaction with the quality of facilities at the venues where the medical mission would be held.
He said the association decided to key into the mission as part of its contribution to support the efforts of the State Government towards quality health care delivery.
“Our motivation is to support this Government that has shown interest to help the suffering poor people get quality health care, and we need to complement this good move.”
One of the Lead Surgeons, Dr Iyore James, said she was ready to give her best to deliver quality health care services to Nigerians.
She said that despite the number of patients booked for surgery cases, the team would try to discharge all of them before leaving for the US.
Speaking also, ACVOI President and former State Director of the National Orientation Agency, Dr Ngozi Okechukwu, said her organisation decided to partner with the mission as part of its high premium on quality health delivery.
The team also held a training session for young doctors and medical students at the Michael Okpara Auditorium Umuahia, for knowledge transfer.
Some of the participants including Kennedy Alegu, and Moses Tonfawei, student doctors at Gregory University Uturu, expressed delight over the training, saying it afforded them the opportunity to be mentored by experienced professionals in the field of medicine.
“Medicine is all about mentorship. Being tutored by the people with experience enables you to avoid mistakes. I’m happy to be part of this,” Tonfawei enthused.
The ANPA medical outreach which commenced on April 4, is holding simultaneously at the Federal Medical Centre FMC Umuahia; Abia Diagnostic Centre Umuahia; and Amachara Specialist Hospital.
Over 7000 patients according to the LOC, have been booked both for surgery and medications.
