Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has stressed that his administration places a premium on quality healthcare delivery and has taken deliberate steps to provide medical facilities that would ensure easy access by the people.

Fubara asserted on Friday while unveiling the remodelled and fully furnished 105-bed Zonal Hospital in Omoku, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of the state.

The governor said the importance attached to the project was driven by the understanding that while lost wealth could potentially be recovered, lost health was more difficult to regain.

“If you lose wealth, you have lost nothing, because so long as you’re alive, opportunity might come back and you might gain what you have lost. If you lose your health, you have lost something. It’s not an easy thing to regain health lost,” he said.

The governor noted that healthcare was among the fundamental responsibilities of government, alongside the protection of lives and property, and the provision of essential services.

He said the new health facility would serve communities beyond Omoku, Egbema, and Ndoni, describing it as a strategic healthcare facility for the wider Rivers West Senatorial District.

“We know the importance of this, and that is why we pay very serious attention to the well-being of our people as a government. What are the primary functions of government? To protect life and property, and provide services. These services include healthcare, housing, and even the issue of the road.

“This facility is not just for Omoku. It is a facility that will also cater for the people of Egbema. It can also cater for the people of Ndoni, in serious cases. It can even take care of some part of the people on this other side of Ahoada,” he explained.

Fubara appealed to residents and community leaders to take ownership of the facility and protect its infrastructure and equipment from vandalism and theft.

The governor said the facility was particularly important given Omoku’s position as the oil and gas hub in the state.

“We need a good health service at this point in Omoku, considering the kind of developments that are coming up here. This is the oil and gas hub of our dear state,” he said.

The governor noted his administration’s commitment to completing projects to standards that would withstand scrutiny, while urging the media and the public to avoid circulating unconfirmed reports about government projects.

The Special Guest of Honour, the Oba of Ogbaland, Dr Nwachukwu Obi III, who commissioned the health facility, commended the governor for what he described as tangible development projects across the area.

The monarch recalled that the Elele-Omoku road commissioned earlier on Thursday was in a terrible state for many years, adding that the governor’s intervention had changed the residents’ perception of their apparent disconnection from the state.

He also commended the state government on the completion of the Ahoada-Egbema road and the commissioning of the 33.5-kilometre Elele-Omoku dual-carriageway.

“It was a place where we did not feel the presence of government, nor did we know that we are part of Rivers State,” the monarch lamented.

On the hospital, the monarch said, “I am not comfortable with those words, the choice of words. If you have started to build a house and you could not complete it, you have not done the job. He who completes a house is he who has built the house.

“That is why I’m comfortable to say thank you for building us a hospital,” he said.

He linked the facility to the healthcare needs of communities in the area, particularly in a region associated with oil and gas activities, adding that the people in his domain had experienced several health challenges that had resulted in unnecessary deaths.

The Permanent Secretary, Rivers State Ministry of Health, Dr Vincent Wachukwu, described the Omoku Zonal Hospital as a secondary healthcare facility strategically located in the Orashi region.

Wachukwu said health facility attendance in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni had risen by more than 200 per cent over the past three years, from about 58,914 patients to nearly 225,400 as of December 2025.

He noted that deliveries, skilled birth attendance and four antenatal-care visits had also increased by about 20 per cent, particularly in Omoku and Okwuzi.

The facility includes outpatient clinics, a pharmacy, ECG and ultrasound rooms, accident and emergency services, a dedicated surgical theatre and radiology services on the ground floor, among others.