John Adams, Minna
Niger State has announced plans to commence kidney transplant operations at the Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida (IBB) specialist hospital in Minna.
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr. Maku Sidi who stated this at a press briefing, yesterday, said all equipment and personnel needed for successful kidney transplant were in place and that first operation has been slated for November.
“Test runs have been carried out on some patients using the equipment meant for the hospital, but the actual transplants were done in health institutions outside the state. I can confirm that the exercises carried out were successful; one of the patients, a woman is married and has put to birth. The next transplant will now take place in the hospital,” said Sidi.
According to him, over the years, the hospital had been carrying out series of kidney dialyses successfully for as low as N15,000 and saving lots of families huge foreign exchange that could have been spent flying sick relatives abroad for treatment.
Sidi said some specialist hospitals in the country had also donated kidney treatment equipment to the IBB specialist hospital.
He said massive investments had been made to upgrade information and communication facilities in the hospital in line with global standards.
Dr. Sidi urged Nigerians to patronise the hospital and stop wasting scare forex traveling abroad for treatment. According to him, the state had invested over N1billion in upgrading and improving healthcare delivery services to patients.
“We have what you are going outside to look for here in Minna. The IBB specialist hospital has been developed to an e-medicine status as patients are electronically informed on things like when they should see a doctor for their appointments.
And very soon patients will no longer carry cards and files around the hospital,” he said.
Sidi said the state recently benefited from the $6.4 million grant by the Save One Million Life for ranking as one of the best in healthcare provision in the country.
“During the 2018 and 2019 ‘Smart Survey’ Niger was ranked second performing state among eight states in the country which qualified the state for the the $6.4 million fund. And out of this, which is about N1.9 billion, the state accessed over N1.2 billion and over N1.1 billion had been expended, leaving it with a balance of over N101 million,” he said.
He said it was from the pool of the fund that 250 midwives were recruited to improve birth attendants across 1,476 primary healthcare facilities.
The fund also assisted in the training and retraining of other health workers. Sidi, said the ministry also purchased surgery machines and related equipment and released N50million worth of drugs to hospital.