• Constitutes committee on implementation of geographic information law
• Engages youths on climate change policy document

In line with Governor Peter Mbah’s promise to reverse the trend of medical tourism, and position Enugu State as the preferred destination for business, investment, tourism, and living, the state government has announced that it is embarking on the construction of a 250-bed ultramodern quaternary health facility to be known as the Enugu International Hospital.

This was disclosed by the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Emmanuel Obi, at the end of the Enugu State Executive Council meeting presided over by the governor at the weekend.

Briefing Government House correspondents, Obi said that besides providing excellent and highly specialised medical services, the Enugu International Hospital, situated in the heart of Enugu City, would equally serve as a citadel of medical research and training.

“This means that tomorrow is finally here in the health sector because primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare are being addressed.

Prof. Obi stated said: “Now, we are going to add quaternary healthcare to the scope, which simply means that an extension of tertiary care and advanced levels of medicine, which are highly specialised and not widely accessed, are now going to be available in Enugu in no distant time. So, medical tourism will be reversed to our environment.”

The Commissioner also informed that the meeting discussed measures to check the Mpox disease, previously known as Monkeypox, explaining that it had become a major international concern, adding that exco has directed a scale-up of an awareness campaign on the disease.

In another development, the state government also announced the constitution of a broad-based committee to ramp up the implementation of the Enugu State Geological Information System Service Law 2024.

ALSO, moved by the devastating effect of climate change on the environment, the Enugu State government, at the weekend, began engagements with its youths to extract input in its climate policy and action plan document.

Although the state had set up a department for climate change, making budgetary provisions for the sector, it had not been able to develop an implementable framework for mitigating the issue in the state.

At a consultative forum with youth leaders across the state, the Head, of the Climate Change Department, Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Nnamdi Arum, stated that the state government is desirous of ensuring a workable policy that would have input from various stakeholders to ensure the success of the programme.