By Chioma Obinna

Lagos—In its bid to encourage local management of cadio-vascular diseases like coronary heart disease as well as chronic kidney diseases, the   Lagos State Government will this week commission first ever ultra modern cardiac and renal centre in the country.

Addressing journalists weekend, the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris explained the 67- bed facility Centre which will be commissioned   by the Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola   is designed to handle heart and kidney related diseases and also offers out-patient services and diagnostic services.

Other services to be rendered by the facility include; 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 catherization, non invasive cardiology, open heart surgery, renal surgery, nursing and diabetic services, rehabilitation services and corporate wellness programme.

Idris explained that the idea of the facility situated within the premises of the Gbagada General Hospital was to reduce 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 Commissioner noted that 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 .

He added 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 noted 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.

He also noted that state government has over the years always earmark as part of its free health policy quite a huge chunk of its budget to sponsor people abroad on various medical problem that could not be treated in the country where the needed expertise and facilities are not available stressing that it is the copulation of these factors that prompted the state government to build the cardiac and renal centre.

“A copulation of these factors prompted the need for us to build facilities locally, find a way of staffing them locally to provide the needed services to treat people of these ailments, reduce the number of money we are spending to sponsor people abroad, and more importantly to build local capacity”.

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.

The Commissioner explained that the cardiac and renal centre building project started in 2008 when the award was made to messr deaux project Limited stressing that facility which was also equipped by the company will be managed privately through a five year operation and management concession by a suitably qualified competent consortium of medical professionals renewable for another five years term subject to satisfactory performance and mutual agreement of the parties wherein the proponent will provide all the health care services; clinical and non-clinical and total facilities management required for the value-engineering Renal and Cardiac Centre.

He noted that the need to get a suitably qualified competent consortium that has the needed requirement to run the facility prompted the state to opt for a public-private partnership agreement through the office of public-private partnership adding that this aim results in the appointment of Renescor Health Limited Liability Partnership to run and manage the facility.

Idris listed training of local medical personnel especially the establishment of a state government sponsored foreign capacity building for medical personnel as part of the concession agreement aside the operation and management concession.