‘Show of wealth frustrating efforts to tackle medical tourism’

Sir, your want to acquire a 500 bed space for the hospital in the nearest possible time, is that realizable before you retire?We have made tremendous improvement and moved from a 250 bed space capacity to a 450 bed space one. A lot of other buildings are underway and by the time they are completed […]

Sir, your want to acquire a 500 bed space for the hospital in the nearest possible time, is that realizable before you retire?
We have made tremendous improvement and moved from a 250 bed space capacity to a 450 bed space one. A lot of other buildings are underway and by the time they are completed we should be talking of 500 bed space and more. We have a lot of challenges , funding is one of them , that is why we are calling on government to see the need for increased funding to  tertiary health system in the country.
In spite of this we have made tremendous improvement in the health delivery system. We now have the dialysis machine, a newly installed CT scan machine and other modern medical equipment found in any advanced hospital in the world.

In spite of what you have put in place, are you worried that Nigerians still seek medical treatment abroad?
That is a major problem in this country, and the minister through the Federal Ministry of Health is doing quite a lot in this area, trying to sensitize Nigerians to see and patronise what is ours.
There is just no reason why Nigerians should travel abroad for medical tourism while most of our hospitals especially teaching hospitals have enough equipment and medical experts to handle those cases.
But show of wealth and pride have taken over the elite of this country. Nigerians think that if it not something done abroad it is nothing and cannot be good. The Ministry of Health is tying to sensitize the elite of this country to patronize what our hospital and medical expert can offer in order to reduce medical tourism abroad and its attendant capital flights.

What does the University Teaching Hospital has that can compare with international standards?
Like I have said earlier, we have done quite a lot in our aspiration to leave an improved health delivery system. The hospital now has a CT scan machine, a dialysis machine and other sophisticated equipments.
The hospital is among the selected teaching hospitals to benefit from the VAMED programme which is a special programme by the federal government and the ministry of health, to upgrade the hospitals to compete favourably with other world facilities. This means that in the next two years the hospital will have an up to date laboratory equipment that can be found anywhere in the world.

The hospital’s mission statement includes, “committed to providing quality health care services and manpower development through teaching and research”, has the hospital made any breakthrough in research development?
Not really, but we have done quite a lot. To meet international standards our medical experts undergo regular training and retraining within and outside the country annually. We have over 200 resident doctors attending to over 500 patients who visit the hospital on daily basis.

How would you rate your relationship with the state government, and how has it helped you in your efforts to improve service delivery?
Tremendous, the state government through his Excellency Governor Godswill Akpabio has been of tremendous assistance to this hospital in a number of ways, and that is why he recently appointed one of us to man the Ministry of Health as his commissioner.
Of course you are aware that the state government donated a Dialysis suite to the hospital which we have already developed to meet international standards.  We have ten dialysis already installed and I want to use this medium to solicit for the support and intervention of well meaning Nigerians and spirited individuals across the country to come to our aids in our efforts to meet the need of the growing number of patients requiring dialysis services.
The Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) has continued to pose a lot of challenges to the medical profession, is there any cheering news from your hospital?
AIDS is still a challenge but with the level of awareness and availability of drugs the scourge is dropping in the state. In fact, there is a significant breakthrough in the field of medicine such that patients suffering from the disease can live normal lives like any other person. Most AIDS patient can walk to the hospital without any stigmatization.
In the next couple of years you will leave office as the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of this hospital, what legacy would you likely leave behind?
Well, I want to leave behind an improved health care system that the people of Akwa Ibom state and Nigerians will be proud of. I want to see that we improve our quality of services, establish new specialties and expand and upgrade our laboratory services in a defined structure with state of the art equipment and ensure that this teaching hospital becomes a medical tourism destination of our country.