The Enugu State Government has set a target of reducing medical tourism by Nigerians by as much as 40% within one year of the commencement of operations at the Enugu State International Hospital.
Sam Agwu, the Chief Executive Officer of the Hospital, stated this during an inspection tour of projects executed by the Governor Peter Mbah administration for members of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Enugu State Council.
Agwu said the hospital was established to transform and standardise the State’s healthcare system to be comparable with what is obtainable in developed countries.
He lamented the huge amount of money Nigerians spend annually seeking medical treatment abroad, putting the figure at about $2 million.
According to him, the Enugu State International Hospital will operate as a quaternary health care center, rather than a tertiary institution, because of the sophistication of its facilities and the range of specialised medical services it will provide.
He said the hospital would comprise several specialised departments and centres of excellence, including cancer care, cardiac and vascular medicine, neurosciences, renal medicine and nuclear medicine.
Agwu said, “We are going to have a cancer centre, and within the cancer centre, we are going to have medical, surgical and radiology treatment for cancers.
“Then we are going to have the cardiac and vascular centre, where we can carry out open-heart surgery and treat all problems associated with the vascular system.”
He disclosed that a renowned cardiothoracic surgeon from the United Kingdom would join the hospital as its Chief Medical Officer.
According to him, the appointment would not only strengthen the hospital’s specialist services but also provide opportunities for training and developing cardiac surgeons within the region.
“Indeed, a top-notch cardiothoracic surgeon is coming in from the UK to be the Chief Medical Officer of this place. That will give us a double edge because he will not only run the medical outfit here, he is also going to help us train a lot of cardiac surgeons in this vicinity,” he said.
On nuclear medicine, Agwu said the hospital would be equipped with a modern Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan facility, while a cyclotron would also be installed to produce the radioactive materials required for advanced diagnosis and cancer treatment.
“We are going to have nuclear medicine capability. We are going to have one of the most modern, state-of-the-art pieces of equipment for nuclear medicine, called a PET scan,” he said.
He added that the hospital would produce nuclear materials through a cyclotron on site, describing the facility as a major innovation in Nigeria’s nuclear medicine and cancer treatment.
Explaining the significance of molecular medicine, Agwu said modern cancer management had moved beyond examining only organs to detecting changes at the cellular and molecular levels.
He explained that while conventional CT scans primarily examine organs, PET scans can identify abnormal activity at the cellular level, thereby enabling doctors to detect diseases earlier and monitor patients’ response to treatment.
The hospital, he said, would also have a neuroscience centre to handle conditions affecting the brain and nervous system, as well as a renal specialist centre and a combined cardio-renal centre.
He added that other conventional medical services, including maternal and child healthcare and general surgery, would also be available.
“Maternal and child care; those are bread-and-butter services. General surgery and all those will be here,” he said, stressing that the major focus of the hospital would be its specialised centres of excellence.
On when the hospital would commence operations, Agwu said the decision rested with Governor Peter Mbah, but assured that the management is working round the clock to ensure that the facility was ready whenever the governor decided to commission it.
“Whenever His Excellency wants to commission, we’ll be ready,” he said.
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