Healthcare delivery has received a major boost as the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) donated three dialysis machines to Immanuel General Hospital, Eket, Akwa Ibom as part of its “Christian Social Responsibility.”
Known as Enoch and Folu Adeboye Dialysis centre, it is complete with a Medical Water Reverse Osmosis Purification System and a 30 KVA generator.
Speaking during the inauguration of the three dialysis machines at the Immanuel General hospital, a government-owned secondary health facility, the General Overseer of the Church, Enoch Adeboye said the health facilities were made possible through the charity arm of the church known as His Love Foundation (HLF).
Represented by Idowu Iluyomade, the Intercontinental Overseer, in charge of Christian Social Responsibility and Assistant Continental Overseer of the church, he said the foundation was involved in various intervention projects in the areas of social services, health, education, media, business, arts and culture as well as governance and sports adding that it has 48,365 operating centres all over Nigeria and in 197 nations of the world.
“Our various interventions have benefited over 154,225,611 people in the last five years to the glory of God, and we have spent in excess of N61,490,459,818 on various social impact initiatives across the country within that period. We have also completed over 1,943,355 projects all around the country.
“Our decision to invest in the establishment of Dialysis Centres all over the country as part of His Love Foundation health initiatives is borne out of the needs assessment of the Diabetic/Dialysis burden in Nigeria.
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“Apart from the dearth of Nephrologists, the number of which is estimated to be in the neighbourhood of 450, there are less than 1,200 functioning Dialysis machines and 225 centres in the country serving a population of 220 million people.
“Less than 10% of those in need of dialysis daily are receiving treatment daily. These twin challenges have grossly limited access to quality healthcare for Dialysis patients and it is the root justification for our needs assessment and underlined the basis for our investments in the health sector.
“This is the 13th Dialysis Centre that we are setting up and our vision is to have signature projects in all the 36 states and the FCT of the nation,” he said.
According to him, other states of the federation have received similar facilities including, Borno, Enugu, Oyo, Osun and the federal capital territory among others, saying that in addition to the dialysis centre, it has set up Intensive Care Centres in four states including the Lagos state university, Plateau State Specialist Hospital, Jos, the Redeemer Health Centre, Mowe, Ogun State and the Ondo State University of Medical Sciences, Ondo, Ondo State, and hospitals in four states of the federation:
“This Dialysis Centre will be the 27TH in the series of our specialised medical interventions – Intensive Care Units (ICU)/Dialysis Centres/Cancer Screening Centre /Primary Healthcare Centres donated by His Love Foundation all over Nigeria.”
Adeboye, who pledged to do more, said the church was moved to embark on these projects in line with the command of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as stated in the bible.
Speaking before the inauguration of the facility, Governor Umo Eno lauded the gesture of the General Overseer of the RCCG, Enoch Adeboye and his wife, Folu for the partnership with the state government in providing healthcare services to the people.
“The huge investment here today speaks loudly to the fact that the government needs to partner with the other layers of the society to ensure that we have advanced development across sectors of our economy.
The governor announced that he has approved the deployment of staff members to the centre as well as approval for qualified personnel to be recruited adding, “We don’t want to have equipment here, yet we don’t have the manpower to operate them.”
Earlier, Augustine Umoh, the commissioner for health, lamented the high cases of kidney diseases in the state and blamed it on indiscriminate use of herbal medication, addiction to alcohol beverages, growing incidence of high blood pressure and diabetes.
The inauguration of the health facility was witnessed by top government officials including the Deputy Governor, Akon Eyakenyi; Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Udemeobong Otong; women and youth groups, the officials of Eket Local Government Area and medical workers in the state as well as members of the Christian Association of Nigeria and the Pentecostal Federation of Nigeria.
