As a means of tackling the challenge of eyes diseases and the prevalence of blindness among Nigerians, the Federal Medical Centre, (FMC) Ebute-Metta has revealed its plans to care for more patients with eyes disorders, who are in need of ophthalmology services.
The Medical Director, FMC Ebute-Metta, Dr Adedemola Dada, made this disclosure in an interview with Pharmanews, during the official commissioning of its new Clinical Building, by the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Tunji Alausa, recently.
Ophthalmology is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders.
Pharmanews reports that Nigeria has about 700 ophthalmologists to an estimated 220 million population against the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommendation of one ophthalmologist for 50,000 people in developing countries.
Available record shows that over 4.25 million adults in Nigeria, from age 40 and above are affected with moderate to severe visual impairment.
Dr Dada, who expressed concern over the growing number of patients with eyes diseases without access to quality care, noted that this challenge and others were what informed the expansion of their ophthalmology services to create a new ophthalmology centre in the hospital.
“The reason why we have created a new ophthalmology centre is because we have realised that there has been a progressive increase in the number of ophthalmology patients that we have seen over the years.
“And the new ophthalmology centre has two theatres and four consulting rooms. So we’re going to be able to see more patients and more patients will be able to have their surgeries from it”, he stated.
The medical director also hinted on other specialist medical services patients can access from the newly built Clinical Complex of the health institution, which include In vitro fertilization (IVF), cardiology, neurology, orthopeadic, among others.
He expatiated on the IVF clinic, which is a new addition to their services, saying the centre is ready to assist patients in need of assisted reproductive care with moderate cost.
He said, “We all know about IVF. We all know how expensive it is. But because we’re a public institution and we have a very large volume of patients and quite a large number of patients who actually need the service, we have been able to do our calculations.
“We are very confident that we’re going to be able to crash the cost of IVF to Nigerians, once we start working”.
Additionally, he highlighted on other facilities of the newly commissioned Clinical Building that will be of immense benefit to patients, such as the 50-bedded new admission facility, which is made up of male and female wards, private wards, pharmacy unit, cardiology lab, and others.
Dr Dada assured patients that these new facilities will increase the number of bed spaces for admission, as patients will no longer be dismissed due to limited bed spaces.
“We now have admission facility, and then of course on the third floor, we have a clinic. And then we’re going to have a cardiology lab, which would make it easier for Nigerians to actually be able to do their cardiology, bring the status and be able to see. So it’s certainly a building that has a lot of functions and a building that many of us would like to build.
The Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr Tunji Alausa, assured the people of Federal Government’s commitment to improving healthcare delivery. He expressed optimism in the new Clinical Building to deliver optimum specialized medical services to citizens at affordable rates.
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