Foundation Organises Forum To Strengthen Compassionate Care, Emergency Preparedness in UNTH

Gideon Arinze in Enugu

As part of efforts to strengthen compassionate care, emergency preparedness, and patient safety, Quantus Medical Foundation, a healthcare nonprofit, yesterday, held a Change Management Leadership Forum and Emergency Care Training engagement at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Ituku-Ozalla.

The engagement brought together UNTH executive leadership, designated WeCare Change Ambassadors, doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, and porters for structured discussions and hands-on training aimed at improving how care is delivered, particularly in emergency settings.

In her address, founder of the foundation, Dr. Nnenna Ihekoromadu, said that the engagement, organized through the foundation’s flagship WeCare Nigeria Initiative, is a pilot program, designed to develop and refine a much needed hospital culture-change and emergency care strengthening model that the foundation plans to replicate across hospitals nationwide.

“WeCare Nigeria is about strengthening the culture of care inside our hospitals,” she said. “When leadership, systems, and frontline staff are aligned, patients receive safer, more compassionate, and more timely care—especially in emergencies,”.

She explained that the program includes compassionate care training, Basic Life Support (BLS) and emergency response refresher sessions for doctors and nurses, and structured porter training focused on patient handling, safety, and emergency room flow.

“It will also help to reinforce awareness of existing Nigerian law prohibiting the refusal of emergency patients, highlighting the importance of aligning hospital practice with legal, ethical, and professional standards,” she said.

In his address, Chief Medical Director of UNTH, Obinna Onodugo commended the initiative, noting that it will provide practical tools to strengthen emergency care delivery and reinforce a hospital-wide culture centered on compassion, accountability, respect, and excellence (CARE).

He noted that the UNTH was already making efforts to ensure that patients are treated with care with compassion, adding the hospital already has a policy that allows emergency patients to be treated between 24 and 48 hours, whether or not they have the money.