Hardship: Group Seeks MoU To Fix Akwa Ibom Health System

Towards an efficient and affordable healthcare system, the United States based humanitarian group HighTower Holding LLC has pledged readiness to partner with the Akwa Ibom State government to reposition the health sector.

The chairman of the group, Dr Marshall Umoren, health expert and philanthropist, conveyed plans for a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the project with the state government through his media officer, Mr Emmanuel Ufott, and made available to journalists in Uyo, the state capital yesterday.

Expressing the firm’s readiness for the project, Umoren explained that the gesture was borne out of the prevailing socio-economic challenges and stressed the need for the private sector to complement, noting that the government cannot do it alone.

He, therefore, pledged to assist the government in achieving its policy goals in the sector, recalling that governor Umo Eno, as a guest to the Akwa Ibom community in Nashville, Tennessee, had recently called on diaspora-based citizens to consider the deployment of their overseas assets and resources to contribute to growing the home economy.

He disclosed that his organisation would collaborate with the state government to float a centre for heart health treatment and emergency in Uyo, the state capital.

“We can assist in upgrading and fixing the sector, especially in the area of cardiovascular health,” he vowed, explaining that his concern is based on the recent assessment of the state health sector and her growing medical industry.

According to Umoren, the assessment identified the noticeable absence of a requisite heart health service-giving institution in the state and assured his organisation’s readiness to facilitate the establishment of such a centre with a strong collaboration expected from the government.

“The comprehensive heart centre will positively impact doctors, nurses, paramedics and would-be patients and victims of heart-related ailments,” he explained, stating that the pilot project would be the first ever in the state.

“The project potential will yield long-term social and economic benefits to the society, as well as provide access to technology-driven medicare for the people,” Umoren said, adding that the centre would cater for people in the entire country and would be deliberately designed to curb medical tourism abroad.

“It will boost intensive heart health medical delivery through training, added to the support it would attract from highly trained personnel designed to be drawn from reputable global institutions.

“The project will have inclusive professional growth, competency, job empowerment for practitioners, and the enhancement of quality of practice and delivery within the state public health sector.

“Its significant establishment will strengthen, train and also certify the proficiency of specialised health practitioners in attending to heart health emergencies across the state’s medical institutions,” he stressed.