An upsurge is being recorded in the number of patients that daily besiege the Ondo Kidney Cure Centre for medical attention on kidney-related issues.

 

The state Commissioner for Information, Hon. Kayode Akinmade, while commenting on the activities of the centre in Akure yesterday, said it had recorded so much patronage that the management of the centre had requested for the posting of more staff to the centre. The Kidney Cure Centre which is about four-month-old, commenced admission of patients on March 13 this year and conducted over 80 dialysis sessions, with a total of 105 patients within the first few weeks of operation.

 

Stating that the patronage at the centre had been wonderful, Akinmade, relying on the record available at the centre, said: "If one looks at the sessions on dialysis, over 80 was done in just over six weeks, roughly at the rate of two sessions per day, for a centre that is just starting."

 

He the management of the centre had within few months of operation, requested for more staff to be posted to the centre because according to him, the patronage was likely to escalate in the next few months with the progression level of the pthe number of people coming on a daily basis.

 

He added that the centre was linked with hospitals abroad with the medical staff structured to meet up with the hospital's three areas of focus. The staff include doctors, general and dialysis nurses,; dieticians, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, medical lab scientists, health information managers said to come into play when the centre gathers data through research.

 

The centre already has over 45 nurses at the moment, Akinmade also mentioned. While conducting journalists round the centre recently, the Chief Medical Director (CMD), Dr. Akinbodewa Akinwunmi, said the Medical Village where the Kidney Cure Centre is located was designed for medical tourism, adding that it was the reason the facilities are second to none in Nigeria.

 

"In the standards of operation and personnel, it is also second to none. Our doctors here are not just medical officers" he said.. According to the CMD, two of the doctors at the centre "are members of the Postgraduate College of Nigeria, some are members of the West African College of Physicians. It is a confidence booster that these are not just general practitioners, but specialists in training." The CMD explained that there are two consultant nephrologists at the centre while there are three dieticians, two social workers, and two clinical psychologists.

 

He described the feat as peculiar because the care of the kidney patients was under the auspices of a team made up of the nephrologists and renal dieticians, adding that the centre had produced the first renal dietician in Nigeria.

 

"Now, we have got nurses in this hospital, about 45 nurses, we also have biomedical engineers who ensure that the dialysis machines don't break down.

 

"We have got an in-house laboratory. That is not common in most government hospitals. The laboratory can look at blood, stool, urine in our patients, and then we can make prompt diagnosis." The CMD said that "the pharmacy is just 30 seconds' walk from the consulting room, meaning that the time for treatment is contracted. This explains the high survival."

 

Akinbodewa added that in terms of dialysis, the hospital ranks among the best in terms of facilities. "We have 10 dialysis points. Most other dialysis centres don't have more than three or four. Out of the 10, seven are for the general population. "This is the only centre that can dialyse both HIV patients and hepatitis patients. It also has a dialysis suite," he said.