55 years after: Dala Orthopaedic battles to replace equipment acquired by Sardauna

On the 21st December 1959, the then Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi commissioned the Dala Hospital on behalf of the Premier of the Northern region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto to cater for the orthopaedic needs of the people of the region.Five and a half decades after its establishment, the hospital is […]

On the 21st December 1959, the then Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammadu Sanusi commissioned the Dala Hospital on behalf of the Premier of the Northern region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto to cater for the orthopaedic needs of the people of the region.
Five and a half decades after its establishment, the hospital is still serving the people of the region with the same equipment that was acquired at its inception. Our correspondent who was at the hospital reports that the hospital is still being housed on the structures that were built at its inception.
Dala, is one of the three orthopaedic hospitals of the Federal Government in the country. One is sited at Igbobi, Lagos State and the third one is in Enugu State. Of all the three, Dala was the only one that was purposely built for orthopaedic functions.
At inception in view of the importance attached to the hospital by the government of the northern region at that time it was managed by consultants from the Royal College, London.
Speaking during a chat with newsmen, the Medical Director of the hospital, Dr. Muhammad Nuhu Salihu said they are working hard to replace the equipment that were bought during the era of late Sardauna of Sokoto.
“ Yes we are not resting on our oars. We on our part too have thought that anything that has been in existence for 55 years, we need to look back knowing-fully well, that the institution is providing service to all the northern states and we have patients from Cameroun, Chad, and Niger Republic.
“We realised that we are still lagging behind in term of infrastructural development and then meeting up with the standard of the Royal College of London. When we started doctors were coming from there and they were bringing equipment and all that. Today when we compared ourselves, we saw that we have a very wide gap and this is why we are working hard to bridge the gap.
“We still have facilities that were built in 1959 and they are now obsolete. We still have equipments that were bought during the Sardauna era and they are now obsolete. How do we address these two challenges? We have done well in the area of training but medical equipments are too significant to be neglected,” he said.
To address the problem of obsolete equipment, he said they have decided to launch a 700-mllion naira endowment fund during the 55th anniversary of the hospital in view of dwindling resources from Federal Government.
“We are not only going to celebrate our 55th anniversary on the 21st  of this month but we are going to launch an endowment fund to get wealthy individuals from within and outside the country to help us to bring up the level of our infrastructure and equipment,” he said.
He said they have resolved at the management meeting of the hospital to raise the fund in order to build a spinal cord centre for the treatment of spinal cord cases in the country.
“When built, the spinal cord centre will take care of patients with back pains, patients who cannot walk because of spinal cord problem; patients who had accident and developed spinal cords injuries leading to their inability to use their legs, hands or both,” he said.
According to him, the only spinal cord centre that is available in the country is in Enugu State and that it is dilapidated now.
“The only spinal cord centre that is available in the country is at Enugu and owned by the missionary. Today it’s dilapidated. Here in Dala we have an eight, bedded ward that is dedicated for spinal cord patients in this hospital and minimum we received 25 patients weekly requiring spinal cord services.
“Back pain is a disease for everybody. It is such a wide spread disease that is everywhere so we need to develop a centre that will specialise on the treatment. 60 percent of Nigerians going abroad for medical treatment are going there because of spinal cord related ailment.
“If we can get the funds to build the centre we are going to reduce the number of people going abroad for it. It is better for you to receive treatment in your country than going abroad. We have the manpower, what we required now is the equipment and this is why we are appealing for the fund,” he said.
He said they will use the fund in building of 45 bed space spinal cord centre and to acquire a state of the art equipment including Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).
“Yes it is a project that is doable under the Federal Government but if we are going to rely on them it will take us probably 10 years to complete it because the amount is more than the budget of four of the federal hospitals in a year,” he said.