By Jude Michael
A Port Harcourt-based oil services company, SEGOFS Energy Group, set to establish a first-class and international standard diagnostic centre in Awka the Anambra State capital, in partnership with Apex Specialists Hospital, for comprehensive healthcare service delivery for Anambra residents.
The facility, christened Apex Diagnostic Centre, Awka, would accommodate equipment necessary to provide CT scanning with brand new GE revolution maxima 72 kw, digital X-ray, magnetic resonance imaging, and non-imaging advanced laboratory tests.
Some of these, according to an officer of GE Healthcare, a partnering agency, Mr Precious Ike, would be the first of their kind in the South East of Nigeria.
Speaking with newsmen during a foundation laying ceremony of the facility, the Managing Director, SEGOFS Energy Group, Engr Chief Bart Nwibe, said the essence of setting up the facility was to upgrade and provide comprehensive healthcare services for the benefits of Anambra residents.
‘This is a part of think-home philosophy which successive governments in Anambra State, starting from Governor Chukwuemeka Ezeife, preach; that’s a situation whereby those of us who have businesses outside the state should be thinking home to grow the economy of the state and help create employments for our people.
‘So, that’s what SEGOFS is doing in partnership with Apex; it’s a perfect partnership.
‘We’re committed to investing close to three billion Naira to set up the diagnostic centre.
‘Of course, we’re here with GE Healthcare as a partner to make sure that this facility is built to specifications.
‘We gonna work with them all the way to make sure that we provide premium facility and services for the benefits of our people.
‘Every equipment that helps a specialist to pinpoint what’s needed to be done to save a life of a patient will be here. A kind of tests you go to India, USA, Europe, South Africa for, will be done here.
‘By the time we’ll have this centre running, we could at certain stage partner with hospital chest outside Nigeria (through internet),’ Engr Nwibe said.
He added that this centre was not really about making money, otherwise it could be sited in Lagos or Abuja, saying that no other people would develop Anambra State than its people doing well in other parts of the country and the world.
‘Anambra people have the resources, and our aging parents, our brothers and sisters living at home need the centre here to take care of them,’ Nwibe said.
Also speaking, the Founder of Apex Hospital System, Prof Uchenna Nwosu, with joy noted that the emergence of Apex Diagnostic Centre would be a game-changer in healthcare service delivery for people of Anambra and beyond.
‘We’re very pleased that SEGOFS has decided to partner with us to provide advanced tertiary healthcare to people.
‘In terms of tertiary healthcare, one of the problems we’ve at Apex as … a specialists hospital in Awka is not having a green imaging centre within four walls.
‘There’re diagnostic centres that have no hospitals here; and there’re hospitals that have no diagnostic centre to support them.
‘So, now we’re going to have a hospital that has not only an intensive healthcare unit, but also a diagnostic centre within yard,’ Prof Nwosu said while performing a symbolic laying of a foundation stone of the over three billion Naira project.
Present during the ceremony, which took place on Saturday 18th January, were the board members of both Apex Specialists Hospital and SEGOFS Energy Group who included Hon Sir Ben Chika Uzoagu, the Chairman, Governing Council, Apex College of Nursing Sciences, Igbo-Ukwu, Barr Ifeanyi Chukwurah, among others.
