FIC Report (Ebonyi State) – The Federal Ministry of Health and Social Warfare has reiterated its resolve to drive steady progress and support innovations in the teaching hospitals and other federal health institutions across Nigeria, in line with the Renewed hope agenda of President Bola Tinubu.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Ms Daju Kachollom, gave the assurance on while addressing the Management of David Umahi Federal University of Medical Sciences, Uburu, in Ohaozara local government area of Ebonyi state.
Kachollom was on tour of the hospital as part of activities in her 2-day official visit to Ebonyi state to flags-off the nationwide cancer awareness and free cancer screening programme for the Southeast zone of the country.
Kachollom, described Cancer as one of the non-communicable diseases that have ravaged and still ravaging Nigerians. She advocated preventive rather than curative measures as the best bet for eradicating the disease, adding that teaching citizens how to live healthy lives will make them spend less time in hospitals and drastically reduce medical expenses.
She noted that since the coming on board of President Tinubu with the Renewed Hope Agenda, the health sector has changed for better, adding that the Federal Ministry of Health, under the current management has from inception developed a 4-point agenda bordering on governance and leadership, quality health outcome and unlocking the value chain which aims to drive progress in the Ministry and its agencies which includes the hospitals.
The permanent secretary expressed pride in the observable leadership and professional ingenuity of DUFUTH’s Chief Medical Director, Professor Uzoma Maryrose Agwu, which has accounted for the noticeable steady progress in the hospital driven by dedication and unity of purpose among staff and management.
She pledged to transmit the many challenges of the newest teaching hospital’s to appropriate quarters for necessary action.
The CMD in her address explained that in spite of the many challenges facing the DUFUTH as a new teaching hospital, it has within the last three years grown in leaps in its mission of breaking the tides of foreign medical tourism through excellent breakthroughs in diverse areas of medical practice, adding that it has become a centre of excellence in clinical and internship training, and effectively discharging its corporate social responsibilities in free medical examination and treatment of diverse diseases including cancer screening, among others.
She noted that despite challenges, the teaching hospital has provided free medical treatment to at least 8,000 vulnerable individuals, including children, the elderly, indigent persons and pregnant women through its first phase of medical extension programme and outreaches across the state.
The medical extension programme was carried out in its recently activated four rural primary healthcare centres handed over to it by the state government.
Professor Agwu who enumerated some of the challenges of the hospital to include absence of steady water supply source, shortage/epileptic power supply from public energy source and manpower shortages, among others, appealed for the intervention of the federal government through the Federal Ministry of Health to address them.
She commended President Bola Tinubu for the great impact his Renewed Hope Agenda is making in the health and other sector in the country.
She also applauded the competence and dedication of the coordinating Minister of Health and Social welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate and the Permanent Secretary in driving the agenda which has paid-off in DUFUTH and other federal health institutions.
“In the last three years and counting, we have rolled out a number of medical outreaches within and outside our host community, offering screenings for cervical cancer, blood sugar levels, eye exams, routine dental check-ups, blood pressure checks, de-worming exercises, nutritional talks, distribution of drugs and interventional items, and have deployed our professionals to the field to oversee and coordinate these medical initiatives.
“We have also screened for diseases such as hypertension, malaria, tuberculosis and others that, if discovered early and treated, could be cured”.
According to her, the hospital has further expanded its educational initiatives by establishing a thriving college of Health Technology which will soon commence its third batch students admission, as well as a college of Nursing Sciences soon to be launched, among other achievements.
Prof. Agwu further appealed for increased budgetary allocation to enable the hospital continue to deliver in its vision and mission as the newest and most proficient Federal Teaching Hospital in the South East.
“The weight of our budgetary allocation is so minimal to the volume of structural and super structural facilities required to keep the Teaching Hospital afloat and sustain the existing standard as a center of medical excellence.
The Permanent Secretary, during the visit commissioned some newly procured electric stretcher trolleys by the hospital and its newly equipped Physiotherapy centre. She also flagged-off the hospital’s free cancer screening exercise which is in collaboration with the the Federal Ministry.
Signed
BAKARE LAURETTA
HOC FIC ABAKALIKI
25/2/2026
