March 18, 2015 is a supposed-messianic date to remember as a ray of
hope beamed for about 25 million Nigerians (13.9 per cent of the 180
million people) suffering from life debilitating cardiac and renal
diseases.
Cardiac and Renal centre, Lagos |
It was a day when the former Governor of Lagos State, Mr Babatunde
Fashola inaugurated the N5 billion ultra-modern Cardiac and Renal
Centre, located beside the General Hospital, Gbagada.
Fashola opened the multi-billion Naira facility amid fanfare with an
intrepid perception that it was a right step in the right direction and
hope to millions of Nigerians suffering from the diseases.
However, four years down the lane, a centre with a high hope has
suddenly become gold rust and now under lock with a smirk look of
extinction.
A News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) visit to Gbagada Cardiac and Renal
Centre which many have regarded to be one of the best specialist centres
in Africa, tells a story of a case of an insidious abandonment.
The locked centre could naturally tell a story of an engendered
situation where projects that should have directly alleviated the
suffering of the masses could be discontinued.
One can also imagine the cost of this project in terms of financial
and socio-economic losses which is simply immeasurable to humanity.
The Gbagada ultra-modern Cardiac and Renal Centre was built with
glamour and the hope of providing specialist care to many Nigerians and
also help to stem the rising medical tourism associated with renal and
cardiac treatments.
The centre was said to be superbly well equipped to global best
practices and standards, which boasts of renal support facility features
with 24 fully equipped dialysis machines.
It also has an open heart surgery service which is supported by two
anesthetic machines, blood and fluid warmers, a cell saver machine,
three intra-aortic balloon pumps in addition to numerous other equipment
and facilities.
Within the centre are 19 critical care beds (5 ICU beds, 10 Coronary
care beds and 4 Recovery room beds), and more importantly, it also
claimed to offer a 24-hour service with teams of cardiology and
cardiovascular experts.
The Chief Executive Officer of the centre, Prof. Babatunde Green, at
the opening said the hospital would provide a world class healthcare
delivery to Nigerians typical of Europe and the U.S.
He said that the centre would provide an echocardiography facility
which is a safe and non-invasive diagnostic test that uses frequency
sound waves to produce images of the heart and its vessels.
“It also provides an electrocardiography, a diagnostic test to detect abnormalities in the heart rhythm.
“This will help patients with complex kidney diseases and urologic
conditions to find the full range of treatment options at the
cardio-renal centre as our operating time is 24 hours,’’ he said.
While many narratives have been put up for the non-functioning of the
more than N5 billion health facility, it is sore taste to spill that
those narratives are beyond redemption.
Some said that the centre was fraught with infrastructural defects
and lack of working capital by the concessionaire to properly manage the
facility.
Some of the blame was put on the concessionaire, handling the centre,
Renescor Health LLP, a consortium of international health experts with
varied experience in cardiac and renal management.
A source also said that many of the equipment and infrastructure
handed over to the concessionaire by the Lagos State Government were
found not to be in perfect condition for use.
However, a former worker at the centre, told NAN that excuses for
closing up the place was underwhelming compared to the place the centre
holds in the history of healthcare in Nigeria.
“Any excuse given for the closure of that place is not tenable
anywhere in the world. How can a monument like that turn to a monumental
fraud?
“I don’t understand the position of the government about that place;
it is something that can be fixed, remember there is a contractor that
supplied those equipment, why not set up a commission of enquiry?
“It is like playing with tax-payers money and more importantly
dashing the hopes of many Nigerians seeking treatments,’’ he said.
According to a report, these large populations are in dire need of
cardiac and renal diseases treatment which we easily say it’s a terminal
disease.
This is coupled with the multiplicity of process and high cost of treatment, the centre is a big relief.
But many Nigerians are now left in doubt about the alleged
malfunctioning of the equipment and infrastructural defects. It is so
because the centre had been used for the treatments the people go abroad
to seek.
It is on record that the centre was used by the Lagos State
University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) to treat some kidney patients
after it had carried out its first kidney transplant on in its permanent
site at Ikeja.
An expert and President of the Nigerian Association of Nephrology
(NAN), Dr Ebun Bamgboye, at the commemoration of the 2018 World Kidney
Day, lamented the rising cases of kidney diseases in Nigeria.
He said that Nigeria was carrying the largest burden of kidney
disease in the world, adding that Nigeria recorded 17,000 new cases of
kidney failure, while only 2,000 of such cases had access to life saving
dialysis.
“In Nigeria it is estimated that every year the incidence of kidney
disease is 100 per 1,000,000 population. The number of new cases of
kidney failure we see every year in the population of 170 million is
17,000.
“If you put all the patients on dialysis across the nation together,
they are less than 2,000, if 2,000 people are only on dialysis and
17,000 needs it, and when they don’t get it they will die.
“You can imagine the number of people dying because they don’t have access to dialysis,’’ he said.
Another germane issue on the incidence of renal treatment is the
availability of capable facilities to treat the patients coupled with
the high cost of treatment which those affected will have to pay through
their nose.
For renal dialysis in Nigeria, patients will have to pay between N30, 000 and N50,000 per session.
Bamigboye also said that the number of Nigerians living with kidney disease is far more than the people with kidney failure.
He mentioned that his private hospital, St. Nicholas Hospital, Lagos,
records about 120 new patients every year, with an average of 10 new
cases every month.
“The record has 74 per cent are male, and 26 per cent are female and
worldwide, between 10 and 15 per cent of individuals have kidney
failure.
“Out of the 25 million with kidney failure, about 18, 000 will need
dialysis every year (that is about 100 per one million of the
population).
“Getting this dialysis has become a problem due to the huge cost
involved and lack of nephrologists in the country with the cost of
dialysis being about N30, 000 per session.
“Each patients needs about three sessions per week which is almost
N100, 000 per week and about N400,000 per month. Not many Nigerians can
afford this and the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) covers just
three sessions of the dialysis,’’ he said.
Bamigboye also posited that there were few nephrologists in Nigeria
as the country only has about 160 nephrologists, which is less than one
per one million.
“The number of nephrologist in Nigeria is grossly inadequate and
unacceptable aside this, dialysis centres are grossly inadequate and
found mostly in the urban areas.
“We have about 149 dialysis centre in Nigeria (both private and
public), with about 600 dialysis machines. For a country the size of
Nigeria, this is grossly inadequate,’’ he said.
Away from the renal care, heart-related disease is another health
burden in Nigeria, and statistics have revealed that about 150,000
Nigerians die annually as a result of it.
This is of course alarming with the number expected to increase to 23 million by 2030 if adequate measures are not taken.
Also, 34 per cent of the adult population in Nigeria live with high
blood pressure, especially cardiovascular heart disease before the age
of 50.
Reacting to the development, Hakeem Bello, Senior Special Assistant
to the Minister of Works, Housing and Power, Mr Babatunde Fashola, noted
that the alleged faulty equipment at the Renal and Cardiac Centre was
not anything to go by as it was not above the power of the government to
fix.
“I believe that if the story making the round that some of the
equipment at the Gbagada Renal and Cardiac Centre are faulty is true, it
is not beyond what the government in power cannot solve.
“Those errors if actually true can be corrected because the same
Commissioner for Health that supervised the hospital is still in
government as commissioner.
“When the place was inaugurated, it was a life transmission that
everyone can see and there was coverage of the event, all these are on
record.
“I can say that even if the building is defective it can be corrected
if there is the will to do that instead of finding excuses,’’ he said.
Meanwhile efforts to reach the Lagos State Government officials to offer their side of the story failed.
But if the centre has the capacity to alleviate the sufferings of
Nigerians health wise, why should it be left by the Lagos State
Government to waste?
Government in its wisdom should salvage the hospital from further
decay and save the country from capital flight in the guise of medical
tourism. No doubt, if the money expended on medical tourism remain in
the country, it will boost the economy.
More importantly, government at all levels should begin to invest
more in healthcare and ensure that the extant facilities in their care
are not only adequately maintained but improve upon.
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