From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Patients receiving medical attention at the National Eye Centre,  Kaduna have thumbed up for its effective services, passing vote of confidence on the management of the eye centre.
Some of the patients also called on the federal government to establish State branches of the eye centre for grassroots accessment across the country.
Patients from the OutPatients Department (OPD) who spoke to newsmen said they have passed a vote of confidence on the management and staff of the Centre because of timely and effective services.
One of the patients, Ibrahim Idris whose younger brother, Mohammed Idris  was brought to Centre for the first time said ” My family and I have heard a lot about National Eye Centre, people said you must know a staff here before your case can be treated quickly, some said I will spend the whole day here without any medical attention, but am amazed the whole treatment is moving smoothly, I came here as early as 6:30am and met about 42 people ahead of me but by 7:53 it got to my turn and am happy with the level of professionalism exhibited by the staff.
“The next stage was to go to the laboratory. Everything went fast and smooth at the laboratory. And like our politicians would say, we are also passing a vote of confidence on National Eye Centre”
Another patient in the Eye Center’s OPD who spoke was Mr.Ezema Christian, who is a first timer residing in Television village area of Kaduna city, also hailed the Centre for their services at affordable rate.
Ezema said, “The day I went to the Eye centre, I got there around 6am and joined the que, I was number 33, they started attending to me about 7:40am. The services are second to none so far in Kaduna and other few places I have been to.
“My fear at the beginning was the fee, because last week I was in one hospital within Kaduna town and consultation  fee alone was 10,000 plus card and others the bill was N18,000 yet I didn’t get result but here in Eye Centre I paid N4000 for everything here in PCC, I think this is very ok.
On his experience at the Glaucoma and Cattarract unit, some of the patients;   Aminu Bello, Salisu Jonah Abu and Umar Tijani  commended the Centre for maintaining a moderate cost of operation of eyes for the common Nigerians to afford.
They however called on Eye Centre management to open up Units in  other States and Geopolitical zones to reduce the stress of patients of  travelling from distant places to Kaduna for health care.
At the clinics, Joshua Joram and Amina Abubakar also expressed satisfaction about the treatment and cost of consultation.
They however stated that ” the crowd is much, so one needs to leave home early, with the level of insecurity in the country it is risky coming out around 4:30am or 5am to this place to pick a good number, if possible some branches be opened within the town and in states like Adamawa and Benue or better still the Centre should employ more hands, there are alot of Medical personal here but since this is the only good  and affordable Eye Care institution in Northern Nigeria more people are trooping here.” Joram noted.
Meanwhile, it was gathered  that the National Eye Centre is prefered by most patients due to effective service delivery, quick attendance to patients and low cost  of consultation and drugs.
It was also learnt that both  public and private hospitals in the country have increased cost of  consultation to almost  300 percent whereas the National Eye centre, Kaduna went up with just  33 percent increase irrespective of the cost of running the place.