John Adams, Minna
All is now set for Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB) Specialist Hospital in Minna, Niger State to commence kidney transplant.
Already all the equipment and personnel needed for the take-off of the kidney transplant in the hospital are said to be in place and the first such operation will take place in next one month.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr Maku Sidi, disclosed this in Minna on Tuesday when he briefed newsmen on the activities of the state Ministry of Health.
Sidi said: “Test runs have been carried out on some patients using the equipment in the hospital but the actual transplants were completed in health institutions outside the state.
“I can confirm to you that the exercise carried out were successful; one of the people a woman, has married and given birth. The next transplant exercise will now take place in the hospital.”
The permanent secretary disclosed that the IBB Specialist Hospital had before now been carrying out a series of kidney dialyses successfully for as low as N15,000 as against over N15m outside the country, resulting in some specialist hospitals in the country donating kidney dialyses equipment to the hospital “because the management of these health institutions are happy that their students are doing well.”
He disclosed that the IBB Specialist Hospital had been developed to “e-medicine status” which makes patients to be electronically informed of when they should see a doctor for their appointments, adding that “very soon you will not carry cards and files around in the hospital.”
To improve service delivery and instill discipline in staff of the health institutions across the state, some doctors, nurses and even security men have been sacked for “gross dereliction of duty.”
The permanent secretary advised the people to stop wasting their hard- earned resources on “medical tourism” because “we have what you are going out to look for here.”
He pointed out that the state government had far invested over N1 billion on the provision of improved healthcare services in the state.
He explained that the fund was part of the $6.4 million dollars awarded to the state by the Save One Million Life for ranking as one of the highest states with the highest indices in the health sector in the country.
According to him, “during the 2018 and 2019 Smart Survey, Niger State was ranked as the second performing state among the eight states in the country which qualified the state for the fund.”
Sidi said that out of the $6.4 million which is about N1.9 billion, the state had accessed over N1.2 billion and over N1.1 billion had been expended, leaving it with a balance of over N101 million.
He added that the fund was also used to recruit 250 midwives in order to improve birth attendants across the 1,476 primary healthcare facilities in the state, as well as train and retrain health workers.
He noted that the maternal neonatal wing of the Minna General Hospital had been provided with neonatal services, adding that over 5,000 infants had been attended to since the establishment of the wing in 2014. Sidi added that the ministry also purchased surgeries machines and equipment among other things.