Enyeribe Ejiogu, David Onwuchekwa (Nnewi), Hassan Abdullahi (Zaria), Tony John (Port Harcourt) and Gyang Bere (Jos)
The COVID-19 pandemic was needed to reveal the deep infrastructure deficits and general rot that have plagued the country’s fitness formula over the years.
The disintegration procedure began on the day the army regime, led by General Olusegun Obasanjo, ordered government doctors, who also ran clinics in their spare time, to increase their income, stick exclusively to government posts, or resign. Hundreds of highly experienced experts gave up en masse and headed abroad, especially Britain (where most of them trained) and the United States.
Many of his colleagues, reluctant to move abroad, chose to set up personal hospitals. This delight led to the creation of a small hospital through 3 friendly medical specialists. The small hospital they established in Surulere eventually became Eko Hospital Plc, which has become the first medical facility to be indexed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange as an indexed medical company, which now operates in a majestically located construction in Ikeja, Lagos. Mass renunciation was the starting point for the brain drain that struck the fitness industry like lightning.
The government’s efforts to cushion the effects of brain drain through mass Indian doctors in the 1970s to fill the void created through the exodus of Nigerian medical citizens and specialists have not done much at home. The exodus has not diminished as well-trained fitness professionals (doctors, pharmacists, nurses, medical laboratory scientists, etc.) are still hired across Canada, Britain, the United States, the United Arab Emirates (mainly in Dubai) and Qatar. , among others. Countries.
After the Obasanjo regime passed the reins of government in 1979 to the civil management of the late President Shehu Shagari, the ineptitude and lack of vision of the government led through the Nigerian National Party (NPN) put the fitness sector at additional risk, as the important biomedical infrastructure for the delivery of quality physical fitness began to rot.
It was in the midst of this that the austerity measures imposed by the Shagari administration through the Economic Stabilisation Act 1982, led to the disappearance of essential drugs as the pharmaceutical companies operating in the country became hamstrung by restriction in the issuance of import licences, which were needed to secure foreign exchange. The licences became a tool for political patronage, and were given to well-connected individuals from a certain part of the country to re-sell to the companies that really needed them.
Before long, pharmacies in public hospitals were overtaken by Inventory Disruption Syndrome (OS). Incidentally, when then-Primary General Muhammadu Buhari and Primary General Tunde Idiagbon (Buhari/Idiagbon regime) overthrew Shagari in a coup on 31 December 1983, the civilian government accused of turning public hospitals into mere consultation clinics.
When Olusegun Obasanjo returned as civilian president in 1999, he tried to save training hospitals by launching the VAMED assignment, in which tertiary hospitals were to be retrofitted with fashionable virtual imaging and other high-end biomedical equipment. As with Nigeria’s successive civil administrations, VAMED’s allocation has fully achieved the desired outcome.
Of course, some new buildings were built in several university hospitals and some received gym equipment, but the stark reality is that the “new” machines temporarily fell into disrepair, leading some well-informed stakeholders to suspect that the device was provided. this program were necessarily renewed machines.
In a new attempt to curb the deterioration of infrastructure in fitness care, the federal government has proposed a plan to renovate 11 university hospitals in the country’s six geopolitical spaces. However, it was recently announced that the Federal Government has so far earned $890 million from foreign donors to fight malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, polio and some other diseases. It continues to gain significant investment from foreign donors in their reaction to COVID-19 and other challenges. The question today is how far has the renewal program gone? What successes have been achieved? Is there still a radical change in the state of medical imaging services? To respond to these inquiries, Sunday Sun has embarked on an excursion through some tertiary hospitals, to be informed about its scenario today regarding the renovation project. What emerges is not a charming image. Read:
Obsolete device dot NAUTH
Nnamdi Azikiwe University Hospital (NAUTH), Nnewi, in Anambra state, is one of the third generation tertiary hospitals seeking to make a call in the Nigerian fitness sector. Lately it operates from its transitional site, while the permanent site is 10 kilometers away on a mass of giant land at the confluence of Nnewi, Ozubulu and Oraifite, the 3 communities that together delivered the land.
NAUTH is paralyzed by the infrastructure deficit. Construction of the permanent site began 20 years ago, but progress has been very slow. The gym’s current leading medical director, Professor Anthony Igwegbe, attributes the slowness of the paintings to a severe shortage of investments.
NAUTH now faces replaced medical equipment, which breaks down and the scenario is aggravated by the fact that spare portions are not readily available. The hospital, Igwegbe reveals, has machines for radiology and oncology. It also has virtual diagnostic imaging such as computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging (magnetic resonance imaging), among others, to handle various fitness conditions. However, the stark reality is that several machines have broken down and are not being used.
“The CT-Scan has been inactive for about six months. Mri has been out of use for over a year as it is an older style and the first generation of equipment. Spare parts of these machines are no longer accessible. Of course, we ordered the repair. There’s an order for machines,” Igwegbe said.
This scenario has created a boom for personal establishments in Nnewi, Onitsha, Enugu and elsewhere, where NAUTH patients who want such diagnosis and radiation therapy are derived through doctors at the tertiary hospital.
Years ago, the federal government met 11 training hospitals that it said would be renovated in the country’s six geopolitical areas. Although the committee created through the federal government went to the establishment to conduct a wish assessment and submit its report, nothing else happened.
ABUTH: Obsolete cobalt-60 machine in late replacement
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, is the first university in the north of the country and the mother of Ahmadu Bello University Hospital, ABUTH, which is widely regarded as the flagship tertiary fitness center in the northern region.
Studies conducted through the Nigerian Society of Oncology show that the incidence of cancer is spreading and is being achieved in all age groups. “Unfortunately, the government does not prioritize cancer treatment in the country.
“Many systems compete with cancer nationwide, so cancer is not a primary priority. Second, the challenge is that cancer does not receive help from foreign donors in relation to malaria, tuberculosis and HIV, which are communicable diseases and therefore attract attention. There is no comprehensive incorporation of cancer into the government’s investment program. We have no other indispensable equipment, all of which are expensive. With good enough monetary aid, we can replace the current cancer remedy situation in Nigeria. we want to invest in infrastructure. We’re a long way from cancer treatment centers. How many exist and work in the country? The only big one in the north is in ABUTH. Then he is at the National Hospital, Abuja, UCH Ibadan, LUTH Lagos, UBTH Benin, UNTH Enugu and a personal facility in Lagos.
“We also have small centers in Sokoto and Gombe. So you can see that the spread is uniform. Although all centres are optimally incompatible, they are suitable in Nigeria. With an average of 500,000 cancer cases consistent with the year, you’ll begin to understand why cancer is like a death sentence in the country. The ABUTH Cancer Center has been consistent with it for two years and is intended to be a center of excellence for cancer care. The Cobalt-60 device is obsolete. The federal government’s initiative will renew and designate 11 university hospitals as centers of medical excellence remains in limbo to this day,” said Professor Sunday Adewuyi, head of the Department of Radiology and Oncology and Coordinator of the Cancer Treatment Center, ABUTH.
To replace the speech on cancer treatment in Nigeria, he believes the government will need to show a competitive commitment to a comprehensive recovery program that will lead to the total replacement of outdated machines that dot our university hospitals. As things stand, the country said Adewuyi, wants fashionable gadgets like the megavoltage machine.
“The determinant factor is the megavoltage machine. We need the megavoltage machine because, in accordance with international standard, treatment of 60 per cent of cancer patients requires radiotherapy in one way or the other. But with our peculiarity, cancer patients generally come late to the hospital, when their situation has deteriorated and that’s when you need to do radiotherapy, but the machines are not available. We are talking of linear accelerator for radiotherapy. A major cancer centre like ABUTH Zaria which has been in existence for a long time and training manpower, should have more than one megavoltage machine so that if one is down the other could be used. The government can easily fund the acquisition of these machines, but what appears to be lacking is the patriotic commitment to do what is necessary. And it needs to be done in a hurry,” he said.
High LEVEL MRI diagnostic demand at UPTH
Efforts to complete the installation of the new magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) device purchased through the University Hospital of Port Harcourt for its radiology branch are advancing very well, as the branch chief, Dr. Obaaba West, noted. with joy.
In 2006, UPTH purchased an MRI machine, but it was not used because the device’s request was very low. However, the new one being installed was acquired through a company as a component of a public-private component property (PPP). This is mandatory in reaction to the machine’s developing call.
On this West said: “Right now, we have so many unmet requests for high-end virtual diagnostic equipment; in fact, there’s a request for which we’re going to install. We’re just waiting for the machine to be installed. “
Meanwhile, patients who want to obtain diagnostic imaging go to personal centers that have the machines.
Cancer complains at JUTH over lack of radiation therapy equipment
As is the case in other university hospitals across the country, cancer patients at Jos University Hospital (JUTH) revel in ex ofbearable pain. This is not due to the lack of specialists in the field; the absence of mandatory radiation therapy equipment. For this reason, radiologists or oncologists at JUTH now refer patients to tertiary hospitals in Kano, Zaria and Ibadan for diagnosis and imaging.
This is expected to increase the monetary burden on cancer patients and their families in terms of transportation prices related to several doctor visits to the above-mentioned facilities.
Although JUTH has CT and MRI machines for virtual diagnostic imaging, or broke due to the call of the main patients in the hospital.
JUTH’s consultant radiologist and clinical oncologist, Dr. Samuel Kwis, is naturally alarmed by the immediate increase in the number of patients visiting the hospital. In this sense, Kwis’s honest preference is that the federal government sees a desire to identify and equip a cancer remedy center at JUTH, Jos, for the geopolitical dominance of the central-north component of the county.
He gave a review of the cancer image: “Recent studies have shown that cancer is on the rise. By the end of this year, there are expected to be around 9.6 million new cases consistent with the year. The incidence is expanding due to our lifestyle, our nutritional and environmental points contribute to the immediate increase.
“The call for other people with cancer has begun to build in recent decades. Currently, JUTH does not have a radiation therapy device, however, it is anything that control is difficult to achieve. Currently, there are only two or more centers that have functional devices in the country: the national hospital, the University Hospital of Abuja and Lagos, but that of Dan Fodio University, Sokoto is epileptic. We are hopeful that until next year, if the government does what we expect, we deserve to have the device. We deserve to start the construction of the facility where the device will be installed because it is very expensive to build a room where the device is stored. You are talking about the construction of a piece of wrought concrete one to two meters thick, so you can believe how much you want to build this room, therefore it is capitalist ».
Enyeribe Ejiogu, David Onwuchekwa (Nnewi), Hassan Abdullahi (Zaria), Tony John (Port Harcourt) and Gyang Bere (Jos) …
The Nigerian Diary
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