As part of efforts aimed at ensuring local management of cadio-vascular diseases like coronary heart disease as well as chronic kidney diseases, the Lagos State Government has completed the first ultra modern cardiac and renal centre at Gbagada area of Lagos.
The Centre, which is billed to be commissioned on Wednesday, March, 2015 by the Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola is a 67-bed facility within the premises of the Gbagada General Hospital. According to Dr. Jide Idris, the State Commissioner for Health, the idea behind building the centre stem from the need to stop the spate of medical trips abroad as well as build local capacity especially for ailments that should be treated locally but where expertise and facilities are not available to manage them.
“The facility is designed to handle heart and kidney related diseases and also offers out-patient services, diagnostic services, ultrasound, CT scan, Echo cardiography, Stress Electrocardiography, laboratory services, fluoroscopy, ocular investigation for complications from hypertension, diabetes and renal conditions, haemo-dialysis for acute and chronic kidney diseases with 24 dialysis machine, admission for all cardiac conditions that requires hospital stay, critical care in intensive care unit (ICU) and high dependency wards, cardiac catherisation, non invasive cardiology, open heart surgery, renal surgery, nursing and diabetic services, rehabilitation services and corporate wellness program”, Idris said.
The commissioner also stated that the state government through the Ministry of Health considers it appropriate and timely to have a befitting cardiac and renal Centre due to the increasing number of patients presenting with end stage renal failure and coronary heart diseases adding also that the lack of a purpose built renal specialist centre, the periodic nature of the cardiac and renal missions which has limited the number of beneficiaries and the need to conserve the financial resources currently being expended in the management of patients with renal and cardiac diseases in foreign countries are key reasons for building the facility.
Idris observed that the cardiac and renal disease constitute a growing health burden globally stressing that the total number of cardiovascular and chronic kidney diseases deaths had increased globally to a worrisome state in the health sector especially in Lagos and Nigeria which require efforts of stakeholders in State health system to address.
The Commissioner added that the non-communicable disease burden prompted the State government to embark on the screening of people for hypertension and diabetes which are major contributor to the cardiac and renal ailment burden as part of the of its preventive and health promotion strategy.
Idris also opined that setting up of the facility will help bring back home Nigerian medical specialist referring to it as a way of ‘brain gain’ to defeat the ‘brain drain’ phenomenon stressing that over the years; quite a number of indigenous medical personnel have left the country for greener pastures outside of the country due to lack of infrastructure and facilities they could exhibit their skills with.
