“I want to talk to you about Health and Human Services. He who has good health has hope; and he who has hope, has everything. Communities are only as strong as the health of their men, women and children.”

HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Free Medical Services:

While I was heading the Imo state trade mission in the USA, I had only a two-man office (myself and a secretary). We raised well over N10 billion naira in equipment towards the Imo State University Teaching Hospital, general hospitals and health centers in the state and flew over ten successful medical missions from USA to various local governments in Imo State. Through that effort, lives were saved, hopes were restored. We brought smiles back to many faces at no cost to the people. We will continue to explore such avenues to provide free medical services to people in need who otherwise could not afford it. In our state, no one should be abandoned to fate. No woman should carry pregnancy for Nine months only to die in the delivery ward due to inadequate facilities or services.

Emergency Medical Response:

I am still saddened by the thousands of lives we lose every year due to lack of ‘Emergency Response System’. There are still instances of people surviving road accidents but bleeding to death from minor cuts because trained emergency help didn’t arrive on time. There are pregnant women dying on their way to the hospital due to inappropriate transportation methods. This has to stop.

We will establish a ‘State Emergency Response System’ comprising trained paramedics, ambulatory service backed-up by specialized vehicles, and an emergency helicopter to airlift badly injured people from the scene of accidents. Of course our state hospitals will be equipped to meet the challenges. During my medical missions, I had trained our personnel on this with the collaboration of the Washington DC Emergency Response dept. We had brought nine well-equipped ambulances and two fire fighting trucks to Imo for these. We will re-engage these resources and get more.

Hospital Services:

There are numerous hospitals and health centers scattered all over the state including the teaching hospitals. What makes a health facility is not buildings but the level of equipment and services available in them. Our government will recreate the ‘magic’ I did at the teaching hospital and set up state of the art regional hospitals as well as retrofit the general hospitals and rural health centers to make them viable and efficient as well as affordable. We will rely a lot on the international leverages we have built over the years to make these affordable for the state.