By Chimezie Godfrey, Abuja
The Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Abuja, has successfully carried out its first four Open-Heart Surgeries,
The Chief Medical Director of the FMC, Abuja, Prof Saad Ahmed addressing a press briefing in Abuja on Friday, stated that the Open-Heart Surgery is one of its kind in recent times and is in the FMC to stay.
Ahmed stated that the milestone was important to celebrate, to further prove that effort is being made to reverse the ‘medical tourism’ that Nigerians often embark on.
He said, “This is history being made in the federal medical centre Abuja. Open-Heart surgery, we all know, is a kind of surgery that is not too common around this part of the world and most of the patients now go outside the country in search of care; and therefore you have a flux of people going outside the country on medical tourism.
“Why we are celebrating this moment is for this nation to know that effort is being made to reverse the medical tourism so instead of going out to spend your dollars, you can come to Nigeria and get treated.”
Furthermore, he said, “this service may not only be for Nigerians, but our neighbouring countries and some other people from some other parts of the world can also equally come and access health care.
“Save a heart foundation has supported in so many ways; skills transfer, knowledge transfer, they have also supported with some equipment in this regard. The Federal Government has invested also in this. We were able to get the heart-lung machine that is well equipped, we have skilled manpower, ” he said
According to him, Save-a-heart Foundation is currently training staff and personnel of the FMC to ensure sustainability and teamwork. He stated that the aim is to be able to increase capacity.
“The main aim is for the FMC to domesticate it through sustainability. Sustainability is what we are looking at, we are not just after celebrating today and then we close our theatres, no! We are looking at where we will be in the next 5, 10 or 15 years.
“We are looking at how many people will benefit from this service through this effort that has been put in today. We have a team led by Dr Alioke locally, ” Prof Ahmed stated.
He promised to sustain the gesture of the Foundation by ensuring that lives are impacted. He urged the team at the FMC to take the challenge and utilise the knowledge they will be impacted by the end of the training by the Save-a-Heart Foundation.
Also, team leader, consultant cardiothoracic surgeon and Director, Affordable Open-Heart Surgery, Dr Onyekwelu Nzewi, commended FMC Abuja for keeping to its part of the MoU signed.
He said that the cost of carrying out the Surgery is expensive because all 128 pieces of equipment needed to carry out the Surgery are imported.
He however added that the equipment could be manufactured in Nigeria. “I have calculated the cost of the heart surgery in Nigeria. Using practically everything as of the current exchange rate, is N3 million, the minimum. So for any hospital that wants to sustain the program, they should be able to have a little gain to invest further in the equipment.
“It is expensive in Nigeria because practically everything we use is imported and to do a simple one cardiac surgery it takes 128 items to complete one operation and all of them are imported, but they could be manufactured in Nigeria, ” Nzewi said.
