Bishop Onaga advises doctors to seek God’s help when treating patients

The Catholic Bishop of Enugu Diocese, Most Rev. Callistus Onaga, has dedicated the Godfrey Okoye University Teaching Hospital’s mother and child section.

Bishop Onaga, while officially commissioning the Mother and Child Unit of the Teaching Hospital, urged experts in medical fields to always seek recourse in God when treating patients for quick healing.

Recall that Godfrey Okoye University (GOUNI), is owned by the Catholic Diocese of Enugu and had recently converted and upgraded one of its hospital, Ntasiobi Ndino Na’ Afufu to serve as teaching hospital to the university.

Onaga who was speaking to the medical experts in the hospital, said whoever was committed to taking care of the sick must take recourse to fix it, saying that without God, it might be difficult to heal.

h, physicians and experts who pray to God before they go in for any major work, while those who do not believe in God prayed to other being they believe in.

Hear him, “You all are our medical experts and I believe when you begin to analyse and separate different arteries and veins in the body, you will begin to cherish the creator on how he brought all these things together.

“We can only commit ourselves to helping patients but without God, we are in trouble and people come to you with faith because with you they will get better. You are an instrument of God physically and humanly, so always take recourse in him,” he said.

While pledging to work with the university to provide a befitting mortuary for the hospital, the cleric said he was hopeful the hospital would soon compete with other teaching hospitals in the country and beyond.

In appreciation, the Vice Chancellor of GOUNI, Prof. Christian Anieke, thanked Onaga for his commitment to the growth of the university, stressing that the teaching hospital would serve people of Nigeria, their College of Medicine and university

According to him, with the Mother and Child facility, nobody is in doubt with their medical education, adding that they are hoping the teaching hospital becomes one of the best hospitals in Nigeria and beyond.

“It is one of the giant stride of the university. We have existing structures here before we took over, it is going to be one of the best hospitals not just in Nigeria but in any part of the world. It is a little beginning with mother and child unit,” Anieke said.

Earlier in an address, the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Prof Cajethan Nwadinigwe, said since taking over of the hospital, it had witnessed steady improvement in all spheres of her activities.

He also said the hospital had received infrastructural face lift through the intervention of Anieke, adding that the completion of Mother and Child unit and the ongoing rehabilitation of the main building was testimony of the determination of VC to reposition the hospital.

“The Mother and Child unit will serve as a hub for Obstetrics and Neonatal care. It has a total of 36 beds with provision for operation theatre, Intensive Care Unit, New Born Baby special Care Unit and 16 private room wards.

“We have opened blood banking services in the hospital which is critical for effective care in obstetrics, major surgeries, accident and emergencies.

“Our challenges include lack of basic diagnostic equipment such as X-ray machines, CT Scan, MRI, automated Blood and Chemistry analyzers, pathology lab, echocardiographic machines, ambulance services and mortuary,” he said.

He stressed that the lack of mortuary often made them to release dead bodies even when the hospital bills had not been cleared because of other patients in the same ward.