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Umezuruike Hospital formally opened its door to the public on the 15th of October, 1971 soon after the end of the Nigerian civil war. Its first home was in rented premises at 78/79 Wetheral Road, Owerri, a small fifteen bedded clinic. That was an epoch-making occasion and it made news in the national dailies at the time, because it was the second fully equipped privately operated clinic in the metropolis of Owerri, offering both out-patient and in-patient care of high quality. Before then, the only option was the ever crowded General Hospital, Owerri.
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It can be said that Umezuruike Hospital right from its inception was a trail blazer. The purpose-built site of the Hospital was put into use in 1975 but the building was not completed until 1978.Every journey in life has a beginning and for an individual, an ultimate end. However, institutions may continue to survive and Umezuruike Hospital has always been structured in the belief that it will survive its founders. |
| The founding of Umezuruike was indeed a mixture of planning and chance from the late father of the proprietor, Chief OparaeburuoUmez-Eronini of blessed memory. He nurtured the dream while the Nigerian civil war was the accidental catalyst. |
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THE DREAM |
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Late Chief EburuoUmez-Eronini, the father of the Proprietor of Umezuruike hospital was among Nigeria’s earliest trained chemist and druggist, what we will today call “Pharmacist”. He trained at the Yaba College of Technology in Lagos. He ran a chemist store where he sold drugs, injections as well as compounded mixtures. The chemist shop attached to his home in Port Harcourt often had a cacophony of aromatic smells. He treated sores and wounds and gave injections and also treated minor ailments. He was in fact very successful.
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From one of Nigeria’s first trained primary care physician, from all this a dream grew that one of his children would train to be a doctor and provide relief and service to the people. As the family grew, his interest expanded and soon he spent more time in business than in medicine. He learnt as every doctor that he could not make enough money in medicine as it is both physically and emotionally demanding without providing sufficient financial reward and he gradually became a businessman and one of the very successful businessmen in Port Harcourt. A man of indomitable courage he was able to train all his 20 children almost all of them as university graduates in various fields. EburuoUmez-Eronini founded the first secondary school in Imo State, Emmanuel College, Owerri. He died in October 1979 but not before seeing the opening of Umezuruike hospital named after him at the present site. This then was the dream. The name “Umezuruike” as it so happens is also very apt as it means ‘Death Go To Rest’. What better name can one choose for a hospital?
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THE ACCIDENT |
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HRH. Eze (Dr.) E. M. Umez-Eronini, the first Chief Medical Director of Umezuruike Hospital and son of Chief EburuoUmez_Eronini qualified in medicine in Cardiff in the United Kingdom in 1967. He obtained the M.R.C.P. (U.K.) of the Royal College of Physicians of London in January, 1970. He was a distinguished scholar interested in the academics of medicine. He was awarded scholarship to pursue doctorate in medicine in the U.K. but the Nigerian civil war coupled with the health of his father cut short his interest. He returned to Nigeria to cure his sick father at Awo-Omama community Hospital under the benevolence of his father’s good friend Dr. B. U. Nzeribe, another frontline educationist. Baba Umez used this forum to convince his son of the need to start a private hospital. He felt that an academic career in medicine was selfish and helped only a few while a hospital was an industry that gave both employment and life to the people at the grassroots.
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Baba Umez also felt that with his son’s wife, Dr. MrsElispeth Ann Umez-Eronini, a Paediatrician, from Wales United Kingdom, who had just joined the husband, the two formed a personnel base for a private hospital. Chief Eburuo won his argument. Umezuruike Hospital as then conceived was sealed and delivered in October 1971. That was the accident. Eventually, Baba Umez’s dream came to full fruition with the establishment of the Umezuruike Hospital at its permanent site in 1975. The building was completed in 1978.
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| Dr. Mrs. Elispeth Ann Umez-Eronini, one of the founders died in the year 2001, but her dream continued to live on.HRH Eze (Dr.) E. M. Umez-Eronini later died in the year 2010. |
| The hospital celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1996 and has continued to give quality medical services to the people of Owerri and environs. |
Umezuruike Hospital is registered with the N. H. I. S. to provide primary and secondary health care.It maintains working relationships with more than 25 Health Management Organizations under the N.H.I.S. scheme in addition to many Private Health Organizations.
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