The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Anambra State Chapter, has conferred its Meritorious Service Award on the Chief Medical Director of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University Teaching Hospital (COOUTH), Amaku, Awka, Dr. Maureen Uche Umeakuewulu, in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the medical profession and her transformative leadership at the hospital.
The award ceremony took place at Chunique Royal Hotel, Nnewi, Anambra State.
The award recognizes Dr. Umeakuewulu’s meritorious service to the medical profession in Nigeria and her ongoing efforts to transform COOUTH through strategic leadership, institutional reforms, and innovations aimed at improving healthcare delivery.
While receiving the award, Dr. Umeakuewulu expressed profound appreciation to the Executive Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo, for giving her the opportunity to return home and serve Ndi Anambra as the Chief Medical Director of COOUTH.
She also expressed deep gratitude to her trainers and mentors, particularly Prof. Joseph Ikechebelu, for their invaluable guidance, mentorship, and contributions to her professional development throughout her medical career.
Dr. Umeakuewulu equally appreciated her immediate predecessor, Hon. Dr. Joe Akabuike, for his dedicated service to the institution and for helping to lay the solid foundation upon which her administration is currently building.
The Chief Medical Director thanked the leadership of the Nigerian Medical Association, Anambra State Chapter, for finding her worthy of the honour, describing the award as both a recognition of her past contributions and a call to even greater commitment in advancing the medical profession, strengthening healthcare delivery, and promoting excellence in patient care.
Dr. Umeakuewulu further reflected on her years of active participation in the Nigerian Medical Association, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Chapter, where she served as Secretary and held several other strategic responsibilities.
She recalled serving as a member of an intervention committee constituted to resolve critical issues within the Association, describing the experience as invaluable in strengthening her leadership and professional service.
She emphasized that the Nigerian Medical Association remains one united professional family regardless of chapter affiliation and pledged her unwavering support to the Anambra State Chapter, which she described as her home branch.
She called on the Association to continue upholding the nobility of the medical profession by promoting ethical medical practice, strengthening postgraduate and continuing professional development, mentoring younger doctors, safeguarding the welfare and professional interests of members, and advocating policies that improve healthcare delivery across the country.
The Chief Medical Director also highlighted several landmark innovations currently transforming COOUTH under her administration.
These include the ongoing implementation of a paperless hospital system through comprehensive digitalization of clinical and administrative processes, the introduction of smart patient identification cards, the establishment of a consultant-led specialist private clinic to enhance service delivery, the modernization of clinical services through improved infrastructure and equipment, the strengthening of the hospital’s security architecture, and other strategic institutional reforms designed to reposition COOUTH as a world-class teaching hospital that delivers high-quality patient care, advances medical education, promotes clinical research, and drives healthcare innovation.
Dr. Umeakuewulu attended the ceremony in the company of members of her Management Team and reaffirmed her unwavering commitment to providing visionary and transformational leadership that will continue to elevate COOUTH as a centre of excellence in healthcare delivery, medical education, clinical research, innovation, and specialist training in Nigeria.
The event attracted several distinguished personalities, including the Vice-Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Prof. Stanley Ugochukwu Bond Anyaehie; the former Acting Vice-Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Prof. Joseph Ikechebelu; the former Anambra State Commissioner for Health and immediate past Chief Medical Director of COOUTH, Hon. Dr. Joe Akabuike; as well as other eminent medical professionals, academics, and dignitaries from within and outside Anambra State.
