It was a moment of joy for eight indigent patients at the Holy Rosary Hospital Emekuku, Owerri, when Knights of St. Mulumba, St. Paul’s Sub-Council visited the hospital on Friday, April 25 and set them free by paying their hospital bills. Some of the discharged patients shed tears of joy when they were informed that their bills had been written off by the Knights and Ladies. The bills range from N25,750 to N323,470.

Speaking during the charity visit, the Grand Knight of the Sub-Council, Bro. Eva Njemanze said the visit was part of their obligation to assist the poor and the less privileged. He noted that the Sub-Council had visited other hospitals, charity homes and prisons to identify with the less privileged. However, it was their first time of visiting Holy Rosary Hospital Emekuku.

Bro. Njemanze said the visit became necessary and urgent when they learnt that some patients though discharged could not go home because they were unable to pay their bills. The Grand Knight, issued a cheque for N750,000 to the hospital, to off-set the bills of the affected patients.

Bro. Njemanze who was accompanied by other Sub-Council officers, including Lady Patricia Ihemedu, the President of the Ladies and her own executive, called on other well placed individuals and organizations to come to the aid of the hospital, as it does not receive grants from the government for assisting in the health-care delivery of the state.

He praised the Director of the hospital, Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Eunan Asomugha for the efficient management of the institution and for ensuring that it is always scrupulously clean.

Receiving the Knights and Ladies on behalf of the Most Rev. Dr. Anthony J.V. Obinna, Proprietor of the hospital, Rev. Fr. Dr. Asomugha thanked them for the visit saying, “You have come to share the Easter message of hope with us, to resurrect the sick and the suffering”.

The Administrator observed that while politicians and well-to-do individuals visit mission hospitals regularly and pay hospital bills of indigent patients in some states and dioceses, Holy Rosary Hospital Emekuku has not been lucky in that regard. He praised the humanitarian spirit of such politicians and businessmen and called on their colleagues in Imo State in general and Owerri Archdiocese in particular to emulate such public spirited disposition.

While appealing to the State Government to approve grants to the mission hospital, Dr. Asomugha said that many indigent patients come to the hospital because they know they would not be turned back without treatment while others come with the impression that Vatican writes off bills of patients. He reiterated that the hospital does not receive grants from anywhere, adding that they have to generate money to pay salary bills, buy drugs and equipment and maintain infrastructure.

Fr. Asomugha revealed that the hospital has a staff strength of 430 and manages to pay monthly wage bill of N13 million.

He thanked some organizations and individuals that donated some equipment to the hospital recently, especially the United Bank for Africa and Emekuku indigenes in U.S.A., who donated incubators to the institution recently.

Interacting with the press during the visit, Fr. Asomugha said the hospital also shares the joy and glory of the discharged patients, because we depend on the bills paid by patients not only to replenish stock (drugs) but also to pay salaries.”

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