News Investigators/ The Federal Medical Center (FMC) Abuja, will soon begin subsidising dialysis treatment for patients with kidney diseases.
The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Iziaq Salako, disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja at the commissioning of a clinic service building and ward centre.
He explained that the dialysis would be done at 80 per cent subsidy to ensure that dialysis care is made more accessible and affordable to Nigerians.
Salako said the Federal Government had in 2024 commenced the initiative to bring down the cost of dialysis by about 80 per cent in 10 selected federal tertiary health institutions in the country.
“Going forward, FMC Jabi is now a good candidate to join the implementation of this initiative,” he said.
According to him, the provision of qualitative and accessible healthcare services, is the second pillar of the Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative (HSRII).
He said that HSRII was designed to implement the agenda of President Bola Tinubu to treat healthcare as a right for all Nigerians.
“I am happy to see that FMC Jabi is playing its part as a critical element of the chain at the tertiary care level.
“It is justifying the heavy investments being made in the health sector by the current administration,” he said.
The minister said with the federal government efforts to strengthen the tertiary healthcare system, Nigerians would not need to travel abroad for critical care service like kidney transplant.
“These infrastructures are without doubt critical additions to the vision of Federal Medical Centre, Jabi to be a world class hospital,” Salako emphasised.
Also speaking, the Chief Medical Director, FMC, Abuja, Dr Saad Ahmed, said that the new facility was to enhance the provision of quality healthcare services to the community.
“The clinical service building houses our dialysis and transplantation center, pathology laboratories, offices and a state-of-the-art conference room.
“The ward extension will provide additional bed spaces for patients, thereby, reducing the challenges associated with limited admission capacity,” he said.
Ahmed also announced the addition of a new neurosurgical operating microscope, which he said would greatly benefit the patients requiring brain surgery.
According to him, several other projects are underway to enable the hospital to sustain its mission for many years to come.
He said that the facility was also facing some challenges, which included the exhaustion of available land for expansion.
The CMD explained that this was due to increased patient population and insufficient oxygen plant to meet the hospital’s current demand.
He, therefore, requested for assistance to acquire the undeveloped land around the hospital for that purpose.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the ward extension facility features a well-equipped 64-bed facility.
It has private rooms, semi-private rooms, and open wards designed to help alleviate the challenge of inadequate bed space in the hospital.
The ultramodern clinical services building is a three-story facility comprising 18 hemodialysis beds that are equipped to commence renal transplantation programme soon.
NAN