The Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Enugu, on Wednesday, appealed to Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, organisations and wealthy Nigerians to pay indigent patients’ outstanding bills of over N20 million this Yuletide.

The hospital’s medical director, Monday Igwe, made the appeal during the annual thanksgiving and town hall meeting.

Mr Igwe explained that there had been a trend over the years that during Yuletide, “families come to drop their brothers and sisters with mental challenges in the hospital, and before you know it, they disappear and abandon them to us.”

The medical director said, “We cannot send them packing or throw them to the streets; we ensure they are fed, clothed, cleaned up, accommodated and provided with needed medical services. These provisions weigh heavily on the finances of the hospital.”

He added, “We are appealing to our people, as they remember the motherless babies, orphanage homes and other places, to also remember our patients because they need that care and empathy for them to recover fast. We are calling on Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi and his wife, Monica, the mother of the state, to also visit our patients as they visit other places this Yuletide with gifts and other goodies; our patients need such special gifts, care and payment of their bills.”

The medical director also called on “corporate organisations, wealthy families and individuals to remember our brothers and sisters that are passing through special care in the hospital,” stressing that “nothing is little, even if it means coming to stay with them few hours this season and appreciate their conditions and the life God has given them.”

(NAN)