Peter Odili, first governor of Rivers State in the new republic, has ordered 50% slash in medical bills in the teaching hospital of the medical university he set up years ago.
He has now thrown open the Teaching Hospital for free treatment for two days which ended on Thursday, December, 18, 2025.
Peter Odili and his wife Mary, had been involved in philanthropy even before moving into the Rivers State Government House in Port Harcourt as Governor and First Lady.
Mary Odil was always fighting for female students that were put in the family way, helping them to get justice when she was a leading voice in FIDA (female lawyers). The husband was using their family clinic, PAMO Clinic, to help many elderly persons who could not access good healthcare.
As governor, Odili introduced a lot free medicals starting from free HIV scheme which is still on to this day in Rivers State; Free Emergency Ambulance Scheme, free medicare for Under 6 and Over 60.
Now, in his retired life, he has set up a medical school and a Teaching Hospital, the PAMO University of Medical Sciences Port Harcourt. He has already taken his medical philanthropy to the medical school level and the Teaching Hospital has provided free Services to over 400 persons as part of the events marking its 5th Convocation ceremony.
Akaninyene Ubom, Consultant Obstetrician & Gynaecologist and Coordinator Clinical Services, PAMO Teaching Hospital, said that the two-day Free Medical Outreach, which took place from the December 17 to 18, 2025, is part of the University’s Corporate Social Responsibility, (CSR), took place at the PAMO University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital, Elelenwo, Port Harcourt.
Ubom also said the free medical outreach which is the brainchild of Odili whose vision is to provide affordable and accessible world class health care to all patients.
According to Ubom, the free medical outreach covers all sorts of medical and surgical conditions for patients who are not able to afford medical care due to cost.
On the number of beneficiaries, Ubom said that Odili, the initiator of the programme, mandated that all patients who walked into the hospital during the period of the outreach, must be covered by the programme.
Ubom also announced that Odili has ordered a 50% reduction in the cost of all medical care in the Teaching Hospital with immediate effect.
The reduction is in line with the non-profit policy upon which PAMO Teaching Hospital was founded, Ubom said.
The management also said that the amount charged at the hospital is just one that is enough to cover the cost of drugs, equipment and other services, to keep the hospital running.
Some medical services provided, include but not limited to paediatric, eye, gynaecological surgeries, consultations, various medical tests, as well as the dispensing of recommended drugs to the beneficiaries.
Festus Egbo, a beneficiary, who was surgically operated upon a 15 year hynia, expressed gratitude to the founder of PAMO University of Medical Sciences and PAMO Teaching Hospital, for the gesture which he said has saved him not only the cost but his life.
Egbo also narrated his ordeal prior to the surgery, and relief that follow the surgical operation.
Egbo also appealed to well-meaning individuals key into the outreach, and pledged his readiness to support the programme.
Another beneficiary, Favour Ogada, a middle- age widow who also underwent a surgery, said that she visited another hospital for the surgery where she was told that her surgery was to cost her the sum of N1.5m, before she got the news of the Free Medical Outreach at PAMO University Teaching Hospital.
Ogada commended the initiator, management and staff members of PAMO Teaching Hospital for taking the financial burden off her shoulders and restoring her health.
At the end of the two-day Free Medical Outreach, over 400 patients, male, female and children, received medical care for different ailments.
