The Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH), Zaria, Prof. Lawal Khalid has disclosed that the hospital will carry out its first open heart surgery by the end of September 2018.

Prof. Khalid in a chat on Thursday told newsmen that the hospital has set up a cardio-thoracic centre with a state of the art facility to carry out the open heart surgery, noting that it will be the first time an open heart surgery will be conducted in the northern part of Nigeria.

He also said that the hospital will carry out the surgery in collaboration with experts from University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNNTH), Nsukka, which is a national centre for open heart surgery in the country and another University in Ghana.

The up-coming surgery, he said, is a culmination of many years of careful planning and upgrade of the capacity of the hospital.

The CMD also mentioned that ABUTH as a centre of excellence for Oncology (cancer treatment) is expanding its linear accelerator treatment centre for treatment of cancer patients.

According to him, the ongoing expansion work at the oncology centre is to cater for more cancer patients following the influx of cancer patients from across the country to the hospital for medical attention.

“The hospital records 600 new cases of cancer and between 1500 to 1800 referral cases annually. This high figure makes it imperative to expand our facility as we are committed to ensuring that we give our patients the best possible treatment available. The hospital is widely known for its effective service delivery in the area of cancer treatment and it will continue to work harder to maintain the feat.

He stressed that with modern diagnostic equipment, many challenges associated with service delivery and medical tourism will be addressed.

•Sourced from a Daily Trust report

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