By EMMA AMAIZE

ASABA — DELTA State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, has said the state University Teaching Hospital, Oghara, will start kidney transplant by February 2014.

Speaking on a Radio/Television phone-in-programme at the Delta Broadcasting Service, Asaba, he said the state government was presently benefiting from its partnership with the University of Texas Teaching Hospital, Dallas, with some of its doctors and nurses undergoing  training on renal issues and treatment in Dallas.

“Hopefully by February, next year, the Renal Unit of the State University Teaching Hospital will start kidney transplant in Oghara in conjunction with the Texas University Teaching Hospital”, he stated.

The governor said that there had been an increased medical tourism to the state due to the ultra-modern facilities at the State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara.

Uduaghan noted that as a result of the pressure on the hospital facilities and personnel, additional 300 bed-facilities would soon be added to the University Teaching Hospital, stressing that this would ease pressure on the hospital and reduce the waiting time for beds, especially for surgical cases.

According to him, various health programme in the state, especially the Free Maternal and Rural Health scheme had benefited both Deltans and non-Deltans alike, especially the  needy in the state, stating that “the programme is open to Nigerians, irrespective of states and tribes in the spirit of brotherliness and peaceful co-existence.

“As a trained doctor, it will be harsh and inhuman for me to turn back a pregnant woman from the state free maternal programme because she is a non-Deltan. We are all Nigerians and we have to help ourselves in areas of need”.

Uduaghan explained that the state was paying more attention to primary healthcare to reduce pressure on the secondary and tertiary healthcare levels.