Respite for Awka indigenes as physicians from USA offer free health care

Patience Agbo, 53year old widow living in Awka, couldn’t understand why she was always feeling tired and losing weight. The first time she went to the hospital, she was told she had to pay consultancy fee. She was also given a long list of laboratory tests to undergo.

“When I asked how much these tests cost, they said everything was about N15,000 Naira, and the hospital fee was N5,000. I said ha! How can I afford such money when I cannot even afford to buy garri to eat. So I went home”, she said.

Without any medical assistance, Patience’s condition continue to deteriorate, until recently when some doctor- indigenes of the town resident in the United States of America, USA, and Canada carried out a five-day free health care programme for sick persons in all villages in the town as part of their think home project for their people.
Patience was among the patients who were examined. She was found to be diabetic and her blood sugar was brought under control. The doctors quickly gave her drugs and thought her how to manage her conditions.

Full of appreciation, Patients said, “I am grateful for this free health care. I thought it was witch craft that was attacking me so I had gone to so many witch doctors yet no solution. I didn’t have money for the hospital but thank God for these Oyibo doctors”.

Patience is not alone. About 3000 sick people benefitted from the free health care under the Awka Union USA and Canada International Medical Mission, which took place in five strategic locations in the town, including; Umuayom, Umubelu and Umuogbu.

Those whose cases could not be handled on the spot were referred to Amaku General Hospital, at a cost borne by the health mission.

President General of Awka Union in Diaspora, Mr Henry Okwuchukwu Onwumbiko, told the Guardian that the medical mission was the outcome of the union’s resolution, after the 2015 convention during which members took a decision to avail their people at home the opportunity of getting free medical service comparable to anywhere in the world.
According to Onwubiko, the union received assistance from some non-governmental organizations in the USA, which supplied some of the drugs used for the outreach programme, while members of the union made individual contributions.

In addition to the health professionals from abroad that participated in the programme, Onwubiko said the outreach recruited some local doctors, nurses and pharmacists within the state to ensure that all those who required the services were attended to.

Onwubiko explained that his union came with five medical doctors, one practising nurse, one lawyer and a physiotherapist and also engaged the services of 10 medical doctors, 20 nurses, 10 pharmacists and other support staff locally to make up the required number of health care professionals.

He said that despite the enormous cost of the exercise, his union had decided to make it an annual event and commended Awka people for turning out in large numbers to benefit from the programme.

A member of the team, Dr Anthony Nwobum said they decided to come and offer the free medical services because of the difficulties and deprivations their people were facing in accessing healthcare, coupled with the high cost of medical services in Nigeria.

He said: “Our main target is to reach people who have limited access to healthcare because they do not have the resources due to their low income. Many of us had come home in the past to discover that their relations were dying at home because they lacked the resources to go to the hospital for treatment. We therefore met and took the decision that we should be visiting home on regular basis to assist our people.

“From what we have seen, our people are in dire need of regular medical check- up and this is one of the messages we would take back to the USA and Canada so that colleagues who did not come back with us would appreciate the problems our people are facing at home.

Another member of the union, Dr Titi Uyawune expressed worry that about 75 per cent of Nigerians still pay out of pocket for health care in Nigeria. “This is sad because many of the sick people are unemployed, retired or indigent”, she said.

Dr Uyawune, who is an indigene of Awka said the exercise is an opportunity for her to offer her service to her people, adding that she would always look forward to the annual event despite the cost implications.

“If not for anything, seeing the joy in the patient’s faces is enough incentive to make someone to come back to Nigeria on a regular basis. In fact, I consider it a big privilege to visit all the villages in Awka and come face to face with their problems. From what we discovered, most of the ailments can be treated routinely, but because of lack of resources, they live with the sicknesses at home, thereby worsening their health conditions,” Dr Uyanwune said.

Some of the patients who spoke during the exercise commended the team for remembering their root, and pleaded with them to come home regularly. A patient, Mrs. Evelyn Okeke, who said she was suffering from diabetes expressed satisfaction with the caring nature of the doctors and other health professionals and urged them to keep it up. Another patient, with athritis, Mr. Damian Nwafor from Umuzocha village, said the decision of the team to carry out the exercise in all the villages in Awka made it easy for the sick people to benefit as they did not have to walk a long distance to the venue of the treatment.