In the last seven years, the Mai Mala Buni administration in Yobe has sponsored over 50,000 free dialysis sessions for patients with renal diseases.
Dr Baba Goni, Chief Medical Director, Yobe Teaching Hospital, Damaturu, disclosed this on in Damaturu.
Goni toured the journalists through the newly completed Maternal, Newborn, and Child Healthcare Complex and said over 600 free dialyses were conducted monthly in the hospital.
He said each session cost about N50,000 due to exorbitant prices of consumables.
Goni said the Buni administration also set up a dialysis centre in the hospital to address the high burden of kidney failure in the state, particularly among communities on the fringes of River Yobe.
He said the governor increased the standing payment for haemodialysis by 100 per cent to provide succour to indigent patients.
Goni said the state government was also providing free vascular access operation, a preliminary process for dialysis, which cost between N100,000 and N150,000 per session.
He recalled that Buni, during a visit to the United Kingdom in 2023, invited world-renowned experts to help the state identify the remote and immediate causes of the high manifestation of renal diseases in the state.
“We have already done preliminary work on that, carried out a survey, and identified hot spots in some local government areas in the northern part of the state.
“Soon, we will conduct a population-based survey in the hot spots. We will analyse blood samples of members of the communities, as well as the soil and water they consume, to see if toxins can affect the kidneys,” he said.
According to Goni, the state government is working with the Urology/Nephrology Centre at Mansoura University in Egypt to train doctors in Yobe in kidney transplantation.
He said kidney transplants locally would save costs as the expenditure for the procedure abroad exceeded N20 million, adding that the 400-bed capacity maternal, newborn and child healthcare complex built by the Buni administration was the biggest in the northeast.
Goni said the facility would address the high rate of under-five mortality triggered by the mass exodus of health personnel due to the decade-long insurgency in the state.
According to him, the facility is designed around service delivery, manpower training, and research on the prevailing health challenges in the subregion.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that Buni, in 2020, awarded a N1.6 billion contract for the construction of the state-of-the-art facility. (NAN)
