THE University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH), Ituku Ozalla, Enugu State, said at the weekend that it has successfully performed surgical operations on 108 patients with various degrees of heart problems since March 2013 when it recommenced its open-heart surgery.

Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Christopher Amah, who disclosed this while briefing journalists about the ongoing open-heart surgeries by the hospital, said the beneficiaries drawn from various parts of the country had been billed for surgeries in various countries of the world.

He said that the good thing about the exercise was that it is done at subsidised cost, compared to what the patient would spend travelling overseas, adding that the feat was made possible by the partnership the hospital has with foreign organisations.

Amah said that organisations like Voom Foundation, Rotary
International, among others, have always partnered with the hospital to provide human and material support for the programme. He stated that the current surgeries, which began on Monday, had seen nine patients already operated upon, stressing that the patients were doing very well.

The CMD said the unique thing about the current programme was that 90 per cent of the medical experts were drawn from the hospital, saying it was an indication that local experts would completely take over the programme in the next few months.
“Our target is to do open-heart surgery every month. We want to get to a point where we now do this routinely; but more importantly at an affordable rate to Nigerians. We want to discourage medical tourism because of what Nigerians put into it. The UNTH is a centre of excellence and it is our hope that we keep the tempo,” he said.

He called on corporate organisations and good-spirited individuals to come to the aid of the hospital and support indigent Nigerians with heart problems to obtain surgeries, saying that it was only when such assistance comes that the amount charged for open-heart surgeries could be reduced.

Amah said he was happy the strike embarked upon by the Association of Resident Doctors did not affect the current programme, expressing regrets that the doctors could embark on strike over issues that never existed.
“The money they seek has no approval from the Federal Government.

We have explained this severally to them but to no avail. Instead, they choose the path of blackmail and feeding the public with falsehood. It is a pity. They should retrace their steps for good,” he said.

Amah said the overall transformation of the hospital was ongoing to bring it at par with other tertiary health institutions in the world, noting that some experts were being trained abroad to enable them man some of the new facilities.