For three days last week, health experts in the gynecological ultrasound scanning drawn from various parts of the country, gathered in Warri, Delta State for training aimed at deepening skills of the practitioners and make the highly specialized service available and accessible for Nigerian women.

The training facilitated by an Australian- based Nigerian Gynecologist, with special interest in gynaecological ultrasound and laparoscopic surgery, Dr. Uche Menakaya; a gynaecologist, an endoscopic surgeon, Dr. Kingsley Agholor; and a consultant obstetrician/gynaecologist at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Prof. Mohammed Bukar, had in session 35 medical experts comprising gynecologists, medical sonographers, radiologists, general medical practitioners and family medicine physicians.

Apparently to realise the objective of the training, its organizers ensured that one-day was devoted for intensive theoretical class and the two remaining days on practical training on diverse ultrasound equipment.

Speaking at the training, Menakaya explained that having practiced in both countries and knowing what was obtainable, it became necessary to improve the health system by contributing those skills acquired overseas to his Nigerian colleagues.

According to him, “the goal of the training is to begin to build the capacity of women’s health specialists that are in Nigeria to have the skills to provide ultrasound services at the point of care for their gynaecological patients.

There are advantages to this – the patients will have fewer visits to the doctor because they have everything in one visit. They will have a diagnosis of their problems made at the time of visit and treatment options given to them at the time of visit. We know in Nigeria, healthcare is self-funded, so we know that reducing your visits can help you reduce the cost of healthcare. That is from the patient’s perspective.

“From the doctor’s perspective, it can help them streamline their workload as well, rather than bringing patients over and over again. It can also help them to improve the way they counsel patients because they see the disease and they talk to the patients about it and they are able to counsel the patient appropriately about the next steps. Patients are more likely to participate in the decision-making process because they are seeing what the doctor is seeing in the ultrasound machine. What we are hoping to achieve with this is that we have a group of doctors who attend this training and after, are able to go back to their offices and start doing ultrasound services for their patients because they have had our training.”

Further speaking on the importance of women having access to gynaecological ultrasound, he disclosed that it is “the first-line investigation tool” for diagnosing common ailments such as ovarian cancer, fibroids and so on, pointing out that early diagnosis increases the lifespan of patients.

“A woman that has ovarian cancer identified early has a 70% to 80% chance of surviving. A woman that has cancer identified late has a 30% chance of surviving. There is no other motivation you need to realise that ‘yes, if I have any symptom at all, I can go and have the ultrasound’ and at the place where the person is properly trained.”

Asked about the level of advocacy and awareness on the importance of gynaecological ultrasound among women-folk, Menakaya said training of specialists and availability of the ultrasound machines come first because if the service can be offered when a woman has a problem and goes to see a doctor, she becomes aware of the service. “That is one way of advocacy,” he enthused

He urged the government to look at ways to contribute to the development of the service through funding for the acquisition of machines, legislation for the regulation of the service and provision of structured ultrasound training, emphasizing that these will “improve downstream patients outcome”. He also advocated for an improved system that encourages people, particularly women, to go to hospitals, and not put healthcare at the back burner due to cost.

Also speaking, Agholor, Sonologist and endoscopic surgeon, stated the level of participation by the medical practitioners was impressive, expressing confidence that they will offer better ultrasound services to patients when they return to their different practices.

According to him, a major challenge in the practice of gynaecological sonography is acquiring the machine. “They are expensive! How do we buy the machine? How do we have the knowledge, training? That’s where we are trying to close the gap, to offer knowledge.”

Stressing that government can intervene in both areas, he, added that the training of doctors and provision of amenities for hospitals were already huge burdens on the government. Hence, the need for companies in Nigeria and good-natured individuals to close the ultrasound machines availability gap through “goodwill”.

Bukar said common ailments troubling premenopausal women, can be prevented through regular ultrasound scans by specialists.

The hands-on training saw participants divided into groups and later swap places to enable each group to access the various machines for trans-vaginal probe with phantom, trans-abdominal probe with models, as well as exposure to gynaecological ultrasound of normal and abnormal pelvis using “live models”.

Some participants while commending the organizers expressed satisfaction with the training and hoped for more of such courses to enable them to learn new skills and sharpen those gained over the years.

A sonographer, Jeff Madu, who has been scanning for almost two decades, said she attended the course to “sharpen” her skills.

“I still think that there are one or two things I could pick up from the training which I have been picking up so far.

The training is excellent, well put together, meticulously organised. I have gotten a lot of refresher courses from this to add to the skills that I already have. Inasmuch as it’s basic training, it touches on a lot of things that when you have been in the field for too long, you might forget. I see that lots of people that don’t have experience, they are doing hands-on. I hope that this will continue to go on so that people can have the opportunity to be exposed to ultrasound training which will help their practices,” he said.

A consultant obstetrician/gynaecologist, Dr. James Erediwe, described the training as “very extensive, detailing on gynaecological ultrasound,” adding that the training received will be stepped down to other colleagues, medical students and residents doctors.

It was gathered that though the practitioners believes that gynaecological ultrasound is “cheap and available everywhere,” most women in rural areas are neither able to afford ultrasound services nor find the service easily accessible.