Cancer: UITH screens 2000 people, conducts 79 surgeries

The University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) has screened 2000 less privileged women for cervical and breast cancers, just as it carried out 79 surgeries.

This followed the equipping of the hospital with modern facilities by the Federal Government to ensure efficient health care service delivery.

Isaac Adewole, Minister for Heath, disclosed this while giving his stewardship at a town hall meeting held recently in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.

According to Adewole, the revitalization of the health centres were necessary to relief  teaching hospitals across the country from being over stretched with ordinary cases that would have been attended to at the primary health level.

He said: “the federal government was equipping the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH) to be a regional Centre for treatment of cancer cases. Those in charge of screening and surgery at Ilorin teaching Hospital today confirmed that they have screened over 2000 people and conducted 79 surgeries in six weeks.”

”To produce National Health Polity that can serve as an instrument to accelerate social economic development, our focus in 2017 is to make health care affordable, accessible and available to the people at the grassroots,” he explained

Speaking further, he pointed out that: “To reduce the cost of commodity, develop capacity and be able to manage resources, we are partnering and negotiating with many international organizations and private sectors to ensure that cost of anti-malaria and other common drugs are drastically reduced. Also, Nigerians who travel abroad no longer embark on the trip for treatment.”

The minister added that, federal government had secured a loan of $500million dollars to fund revival of Basic Health Institutions across the country out of which he said N420million were disbursed to each States in 2016 to fund the project in their respective states.

Under the scheme, which would provide 1000 basic health centres as already captured in the budget, the minister said a model health centre is being sited in three senatorial districts one each in the three states.

“We are going round this year to find out what they have done with this money, if they have done well, we will give them more money and if they have not done anything, we give them hand shake and they will have to pay back, “ he said.

Adewole, who expressed readiness of the federal government to partner Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara State, called for synergy between the states and federal government to fix infrastructures which he said was an issue of great

concerns to those in the region.

He promised that federal government is committed to do more and consolidate progress.

SIKIRAT SHEHU