Okon Bassey in Uyo
Akwa Ibom State Government has planned to establish a dialysis centre in each of the 10 federal constituencies across the state.
The state Governor, Mr. Umo Eno, announced this at the Immanuel General Hospital, Eket, where he unveiled the Enoch and Folu Adeboye Dialysis Centre, donated by the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG)
Accordingly, the governor has directed the immediate recruitment and training of professionals to meet the manpower needs of the dialysis centres which are to be fully operational by June 2024.
Governor Eno also ordered the deployment of relevant personnel from the state hospitals to the donated dialysis centre to ensure that the facility is not underutilised due to lack of personnel.
According to him, “I am directing the Commissioner for Health and critical stakeholders of the state to ensure that they provide a dialysis centre in each federal constituency and guarantee me that between now and June 2024, those dialysis centres will be available and functional.
“I have already approved the deployment of staff to the centre. I had given the Commissioner for Health the approval to headhunt for qualified people to come and work here. I have also directed the Head of the Civil Service to work with Ministry of Health and the Civil Service Commission to absorb them as quickly as possible so that we can have permanent staff here. We don’t want to have equipment here, yet we don’t have the manpower to operate them.”
He called for aggressive sensitisation on kidney-related ailments and measures to checkmate its occurrence directing that the Ministry of Health collaborates with the Ministry of Information and Office of the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor to undertake the sensitisation.
The state governor extolled the gesture of RCCG General Overseer, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, and his wife, Folu, in partnering the government through the Church’s humanitarian arm, ‘His Love Foundation’, to provide medical services to the Akwa Ibom people, especially those hopelessly plagued with the ravaging kidney diseases.
Describing the dialysis facility provided as critical healthcare intervention, Eno urged other religious and business organisations to emulate such robust corporate social responsibility gestures to partner the government in developing the state.
“The huge investment here today speaks loudly to the fact that the government needs to partner the other layers of the society to ensure that we advance development across sectors of our economy.
“This is pioneered by the church, and I also expect all the people doing business in Akwa Ibom State to rise up to the occasion and partner the state government to provide facilities that will stand in their names and show that they are resident and doing business around these communities.
“Don’t give us money, but you can do what you have seen here today. We will give you the enabling environment, we will do the building, we will provide the staff if you partner us in your own way,” he stated.
The RCCG Intercontinental Overseer, Christian Social Responsibility, Pastor Idowu Iluyomade, while speaking on behalf of the church, said the church, driven by passion for humanity and need to bring help to people afflicted by the scourge of kidney diseases, has through the ‘His Love Foundation’ set up 12 Dialysis Centres across Nigeria and was pleased to set the 13th in Eket, Akwa Ibom State, among other interventions.
Also, the state Commissioner for Health, Professor Augustine Umoh, while expatiating on the imperative of the intervention, said dialysis is one of the best ways of managing kidney failure and lauded the state government-RCCG partnership as he affirmed the delivery of three dialysis machines with accessories by the church to the centre.
