It may be regarded as dividends of democracy. But the fact remains that Lagos State has become a giant construction site with the man at the helm of affairs in haste to deliver.
One area the present administration led by Mr. Babatunde Fashola has stamped its feet in the sand of time is its huge investment in the state health care services, where it had embarked on the construction of a cardiac, renal centre.
The project has continued to catch the attention of Lagosians because of its importance to the lives of the citizenry who may not have resources for treatment abroad when struck by cardiac and renal ailments.
The projects now at 95 percent completion stage has been widely applauded because despite the nation’s vast resources coupled with the fact that the country has some of the best brains in renal and cardiology in Africa continent, it has no functional cardiac or renal centre.
It is on record that Nigerian medical professors constitute the largest percentage of foreign professionals in the United States, yet the country still lacks sufficient manpower to run its social infrastructure. Statistics have shown that about 20,000 Nigerian children die in their first year as a result of heart related problems because they do not have access to “definitive” treatment. The same statistics revealed that it cost an average of 12 pounds or $18,000 in the United States and Israel and about $12 in India to access treatment in the best government hospitals.
Considering the cost of acquiring surgeries abroad and the low wage receive by Nigeria workers , analysts are wont to submit that it would not be out of place to agree with the statistics that majority if not all the Nigerian children die of the ailment all because government have not been investing adequately in the health sector.
Over the years the major challenge facing the availability of cardiology and renal centres in the country is the lack of high technology equipment needed for the surgery. Analysts are of the view that the trend is appalling because Ghana, a smaller nation than Nigeria boasts of cardiac centre with state-of –the –art facilities while Nigeria still sends its heart and kidney patients abroad for treatment at very huge economic cost to the families of the patients.
But all that would soon be a thing of the past because the Cardiac and Renal Centre, which is being constructed in Lagos state will be soon be completed.
It is the first of its kind in the country that would be unveiled and made accessible to Nigerians particularly those who face life threatening heart and kidney-related diseases. The multi-million naira centre, located within the premises of Gbagada General Hospital, LEADERSHIP learnt will be unveiled this year.
The centre fitted with state-of-the-art medical facilities of international standards on completion, would hopefully meet the aims and objectives of Lagos State to locally handle increasing cases of heart and kidney failure among Nigerians as well as other related diseases, thereby checking capital flight expended in the cause of tripping patients abroad to seek medical solution to their ailments.
LEADERSHIP learnt that the Lagos cardiac and renal centre had already gulped a whooping N7 billion. Speaking on the reasons for embarking on the project , the Lagos State commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris noted that “often times, we see quite a lot of people being afflicted with heart and kidney-related problems and many of them we have had to sponsor abroad for definitive treatment which we feel should not be so.
“We need to build local capacity here and we need to develop our system rather than contributing to other people’s system and that is why we feel that facility like the cardiac and renal centre should be established here,”
The renowned physician whose leadership saw the transformation of the state’s health sector pointed out that the high morbidity rate being recorded in cases of heart and kidney diseases informed government’s decision to build the cardiac and renal centre. Idris, who painted a worrisome trend from available records which showed that a lot of people are afflicted with heart and kidney-related diseases said the number of people suffering from the affliction, had overwhelmed government which he noted couldn’t sponsor their treatment.
The commissioner explained that the rising cases of the diseases coupled with the findings from various screening programmes and experiences recorded in the various hospitals, compelled the government resolve to establish these centres to provide treatment for people afflicted with the diseases.
According to him ,”There is no point in seeing and diagnosing people suffering from these ailments without being able to treat them and that is the essence of establishing this centre which is a state of the heart centre that can do all the things that are being done in developed countries on patients with severe heart or kidney conditions” .
The Lagos state Governor Mr. Babatunde Fashola while inspecting the project recently said the establishment of the centres would help to reduce capital flight as a result of taking victims of cardio-vascular and renal complications abroad for treatment.
Many residents of the state who barred their minds to LEADERSHIP at separate interviews on the project said the project would fill the vacuum created by lack of non functional cardiac centre in the country.
According to Mr. Goddy Okpamen, a lawyer the Lagos State government had demonstrated its concern for the citizenry by deploying its resources to those areas where the impact would be felt. He said cases of people soliciting for financial assistance from public-spirited Nigerians for people suffering from kidney and renal failure on daily basis often published in the newspapers call for concern, noting that with the establishment of the centres, those suffering from diseases that can be taken to the centre for treatment.
Abiodun Salem urged the nation’s medical personnel to demonstrate their expertise by making judicious use of the facilities provided by the state government in the hospital to tackle the diseases. “I also want to use this opportunity to appeal to the governor to ensure that the hospital is well equipped with first grade equipment and facilities. Treatment at the centres should also be made affordable to the patients”, he stated.
“Government should also try as much as possible to subsidize the cost of treatment for indigent patients who will all know may not have the means to pay for the medical bills likely to be incurred in their treatment.”
In her assessment of the project Mrs. Philomena Obi, a nurse said the decision of the governor and his team to build the centre to treat the ailments in the state shows that the present administration in the state is focused and desirous of leaving a lasting legacy that would be remembered for long by many generations. She charged the state government to accelerate the completion of the centre to give hope to Nigerians that requires kidney and heart-related treatment rather than seeking treatment abroad at exorbitant cost.
As the people awaits the formal commissioning of the project, it is widely believed that the availability of the centre locally will save thousands of heart and kidney patients the agony of seeking for millions of Naira to travel abroad for the treatment of the diseases.
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