Their agony has come to an end. They took ill and were admitted to hospital where they were treated and certified strong enough to ho home. But they could not pay their bills, so the hospital management held them back until they came up with the money. And they remained on bed for months.
Help has come. The 11 patients, stranded for several months at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Owerri, can now go home, thanks to a non-governmental organisation (NGO), the Divine Care Global Community Initiative. The organisation paid the hospital bill which amounted to N858,153 and they were let off the hook.
The patients who had been discharged after being certified cured of their ailments, were however prevented from going home because they could not afford their hospitals bills were living in open places within the hospital premises after they were ejected from the medical wards.
To quite a number of the patients, the hope of going home had become elusive, having waited endlessly for relatives to come to their aid until the NGO which is in collaboration with the Ken Ojiri Foundation, secured their release after paying 70% of their outstanding bills.
One of the released patients, Mrs. Ngozi Amaihu, who was delivered of a baby girl through a cesarean operation, could not hide her emotions as she shared her ordeal amidst tears.
According to her, “after I had the operation, my husband could not pay the bill of N237,000 after the initial deposit and I have been here for the past three months with my baby but I thank God for the NGO that came to our rescue. I am grateful to them for their kind gesture”.
For another beneficiary who did not want his name mentioned, the gesture of the NGO is commendable and exemplary, “I never thought that things like this still exist it is like a dream. Having spent up to five months in this hospital I had lost all hope but thank God today the trauma is over and I promise to live the rest of my life serving humanity I must contribute my quota to alleviate the plight of the indigent people in the society”.
The National Coordinator of the NGO, Mr. Dandy Odii, called for collaborative efforts between voluntary agencies and the various tiers of Government in the country to cushion the excruciating economic conduction of the masses.
He stated that the organization is worried that life might completely become meaningless for the average Nigerians without input from organizations, corporate bodies and wealthy individuals to complement that of the government.
According to him, the NGO established in 2006 with the major objective of taking care of the sick and the less privileged got the information that some discharged patients at the hospital were stranded as a result of their inability to settle their bills and had to intervene immediately.
He said, “Divine Care Global Community Initiative is an NGO which provides succor to the needy and the less privileged without any religious or political undertone. We go out and look for indigent members of the society who are in need for assistance and intervene wherever necessary and possible”.
In his words, “It takes a heart full of compassion to serve, not just ordinary heart, because the art of charity is from the heart not the head, it is highly irrational not rational. We thank Almighty God who is the owner of the job Divine Care is doing, and who had made it possible for all to gather to do this compassionate service. We also thank the management of the hospital for waiving 30% of the total bill otherwise the NGO would have paid more.
“The NGO’s routine visits to hospitals are aimed at encouraging the sick, praying for them and presenting them with gifts after observations were made that some patients, who had been discharged, were held back because of their inability to pay. Desirous to solve this problem, the members of Divine Care, who had been giving care and succour to the needy approach individuals and group that have willing hearts for partnership. Hence, the collaboration with Ken Ojiri Foundation in settling bills of indigent patients at FMC, Owerri”.
