Dr. Richard Okoye, MD Save A Life Mission Hospital
The Managing Director of Save A Life Mission Hospital, Dr. Richard Okoye, has emerged the 2022 Sun Newspaper Public Service award following his apex services in the health sector.
The award winning doctor said, the reason why no cancer victim survives in Nigeria was due to lack of awareness and how to go about it.
He stated this in Port Harcourt yesterday, adding “It is so hutting that today we don’t have cancer survivors in Nigeria, the reason is simple because when people have the problem, they don’t know the cause of the problem and how to go about it”.
Dr. Okoye has however urged the Federal Government to attach value to patriotism warning that any country with no regard to patriotism will head to health Tsunami.
He said, “Any nation that does not honour, reward or value patriotism will also suffer brain drain. There are people irrespective of what you offer them, they will not travel out but if you do not appreciate them for the little they are doing towards the growth of the economy and health sector, they will be discouraged and if nothing is done to the level where we are in the health sector, we may be heading to a worse health Tsunami “.
Dr. Okoye who was decorated with the public Service award on Saturday, January 28, by the Sun Newspaper said the award came unknowingly to him stressing that his service to the health sector was driven by passion.
He said, “When I was in Medical school, we use to go for medical outreach programmes in rural communities and there I taught people about healthcare and they responded. So I realized that the problems of healthcare is not a problem of health facility only but a problem of lack of health information and that is what makes a patient will see a doctor but because of the ambiguous nature of the practice, it makes it difficult for them to understand”.
“In view of this, I got an inspiration to interpret medical terminologies in a common man’s language and by so doing, we were saving lives. I started writing books also and from there we got into the media space, a process which has transformed the mind of so many people and that foundation has kept us moving”.
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