Workers of the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu roll out the drums Wednesday to celebrate the reappointment of Professor Monday Igwe as Chief Medical Director.
The workers who trooped out in their numbers sang and danced to the praise of Professor Igwe whose reappointment took effect from April 1, 2023.
Addressing the workers, Professor Igwe described his reappointed as a very big honour.
He said; “I’m happy that this reappointment is coming based on the recommendation of the board of the management. They recommended me based on the performance of my administrator during my first term in office starting from 2019 to March 2023.
“I also want to also thank the Honourable minister of state for health, Barr. Joseph Ekumankama, who upheld the recommendation of the board of management and moved the letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, who assented.
“Today, I’m reporting for the first time in office in my second term.”
On this renewed mandate he promised to prioritize staff welfare. “Nobody will be treated differently. Nobody will be denied his due.
As you can see the singing and dancing that heralded my coming into the hospital this morning was because the staff were happy. I promise to make them happier with conversion activities, payment of arrears among others.
This hospital is the only psychiatric facility in the entire Southeast region. It is also the only facility that is made to train doctors and nurses in psychiatrist. It is also the only facility that offers research in terms of mental health in the Southeast. It is also our mandate to give clinical services to people that have mental illnesses.
The hospital also is available for the people of Southsouth and some parts of Northcentral regions of the country. So, if we don’t do well, we will be leaving Nigerians to suffer. That’s why we want to make this place to be the best and centre of excellence in mental health practice.
There are a number of ways to actualize this. Since many people live very far away from Enugu State, we want to make sure that our 15 newly built outposts in Southeast is functional.
We have ensured that each of the 15 senatorial districts in the Southeast has one outposts. We have successfully completed and equipped nine of the outposts while the rest are still ongoing.
Those ones we have completed are going to be activated. We are going to post our staff there.
Shortage of manpower was delaying us from posting staff there. But we have got new set of staff. Nurses were recently recruited. We’re going to post them there.
The essence is for our people to be able to access mental health facilities closer to their homes. People don’t need to come from the far end of Imo, Abia, Ebonyi and Anambra states to Enugu for psychiatric treatments. Our our station staff can handle the minor cases. Major cases can be referred to Enugu with our ambulances very ready to convey the patients.
That is our priority in this second term. I’m sure that making mental health accessible is one of the priorities of this present government. They want to make health accessible to the people.
I’m happy that President Muhammadu Buhari has given priority and huge budget to health in the last couple of years especially the COVID-19 intervention.
