World Igbo Congress

Regional Medical Center

A New Hospital Concept for the 21st Century Igbo land

Our Vision: To be a world-class medical center of excellence, advancing health at the forefront of cultural and economic development in the southeast, and the rest of Nigeria and beyond.
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1.1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A new Paradigm in Healthcare Delivery in Nigeria: The Providence Global Health & Life System
The population of Nigeria is rapidly growing and at the current rate is projected to be amongst the World’s top five in the next 50 years. With increasing affluence, adoption of western lifestyle, longer life expectancy Nigeria is entering the third phase of epidemiologic transition stage of degenerative and manmade diseases. While Nigeria is ranked as a lower middle income country, our healthcare delivery system lags far behind comparable World economies. India which has similar adult literacy rate, GDP per head as Nigeria, but a higher Human Development Index (HDI) and life expectancy than Nigeria. Its healthcare delivery system is comparable to some of the best in the West. South Africa and Egypt the 2nd and 3rd largest economies respectively in Africa after Nigeria also both have a higher HDI, adult literacy rate, GDP per head and superior healthcare delivery systems. These three countries are some of the most popular destinations for medical tourism by Nigerians seeking specialist medical services that are either lacking or inadequate locally.

It is against this back drop that the concept of a Providence Global Health & Life System (PGHLS) to fill this void emerged, given the vast numbers of our sons and daughters with expertise in different medical and allied specialties practicing in Europe and North America as potential human capital resources.
The goal therefore of the proposed PGHLS is to primarily complement what is already on the ground and add value as a port of last resort for the most challenging and difficult medical cases, thus obviating the need for referral abroad as currently practiced. It would aim to provide comprehensive cost effective care in a state of the art facility for most of the major ailments for which our people seek treatment in foreign land.

We aim at achieving this goal through the concept of collaborative disease management by bringing experts in different but interrelated specialties to work as one team under a particular institution for the benefit of the patient in pursuit of the best treatment outcomes. The PGHLS will therefore operate under different interrelated Institutes to be named after any philanthropist who wishes to immortalize his/her name or in memorial of a loved one by giving grants to establish the respective Institutes listed below;
1 Cancer Institute: Multidisciplinary management of all forms of cancer by different experts in Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology and Surgery.
2 Heart and Vascular Institute: Multidisciplinary management of diseases involving the heart and vascular systems by noninvasive Cardiologists, Interventional Cardiologists , Cardiac and Vascular surgeons
3 Neurologic & Neurosurgical Institute: Multidisciplinary management of diseases of the central and peripheral nervous systems by experts in Neurology, Neurologic surgery and Physical Rehabilitation Medicine
4 Women and Children Institute: Multidisciplinary management of diseases of women and children by the different subspecialties of Obstetrics& Gynecology and Pediatrics
5 Renal and Transplantation Institute: Multidisciplinary management of diseases of the kidney including dialysis and transplantation by experts in Nephrology and Transplantation
6 Spine, Orthopedics and Trauma Institute: Multidisciplinary management of different orthopedic injuries including spine by Orthopedic and Neurologic Surgeons and Physical Rehabilitation Medicine experts

Read more from the Brief on the PGHLS

The Ground-breaking ceremony took place at Newton Hotel Specialist Hospital Road Owerr (Phase I) and at the hospital site at Umuguma Owerri, Off Port Harcourt Road. The business community of the southeast, the traditional rulers and the people were in attendance. The Chairman of World Igbo Congress, Joe Nze Eto, The Vice Chairman of WIC, Dr. Ken Igwe, the Chairman of WIC Health Committee, Dr. Jonathan Nwiloh, the Secretary-General of WIC, Dr. (Mrs.) Agatha Anosike, The Executive Director of WIC, Professor Anthony Ejiofor, Dr. Nkechi Azie, Secretary of the WIC Health Care Committee, Professor Chidi Onyenekwu and the Event Coordinator Muna Okpi among numerous people from home and abroad were on the ground for the event.