By: Felix Ikpotor
The management of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, UPTH, says the hospital would begin kidney transplantation by October this year if all plans fall in place.
Chairman of Medical Advisory Committee, CMAC, of the hospital, Professor Datonye Alasia gave the timeline at the University Grounds Rounds presentation by the Renal Department of the hospital.
He said the hospital is collaborating with organisations such as the Nigeria Liquified Natural Gas, NLNG, and other organisations to equip the centre for the service.
“NLNG has a foundation where they support healthcare and they have been doing this across the country. So for us, there is an MoU to equip a dialysis center but we felt that would be limited in scope so we had to find a way to push it up to align with our plans for a transplantation centre, so that collaboration is there and we are happy to say that NLNG has done something significant. They have funded the provision of equipments and some supports to the external works and we are actually at eighty five percent of completion and that’s going to contribute to the success of the project.
“For us, our strategic timeline is October and that’s what we are working towards but of course if all the assumptions go as we plan, it will be October because we have trainings of staff, people will travel, MoUs will be signed, procurement timelines will also affect us but our focus is to stay on that date and see that we achieve it,” he said.
Speaking on the importance of the presentation, Alasia said the essence is to get the hospital community and the public to be aware of the services and what’s involved in it.
“For today, we have the Renal Department presenting because of the planned renal transplantation and the essence is to create the awareness internally and from the programme you see that it involves different professional groups such as nephrology, pharmacist, paediatricians, nurses, psychologist and virtually everybody in the hospital. So it is a multi-disciplinary thing.
“This presentation also helps members of the team to have a better understanding of what they are expected to offer transplant patients and every aspect of the service that will influence the patients journey.We also believe that this would improve that multi-disciplinary team spirit,” he stated.
He explained that the hospital has kick-started a transplant clinic to further demonstrate it preparedness for the transplantation programme.
“We have kicked off the transplant clinic. While it was there, it was not structured specifically to attend to patients before transplant and post transplant but now there is a deliberate attempt to structure it to make the public know clearly that the transplant clinic is a dedicated service.
“We used to run within the nephrology clinic before and the urology clinic but it’s now a clinic of its own so that’s the first step. So the public should know that that service is being offered here. And ofcourse collaboration and partnership with people such as foundations who have interest to support transplantation and they may now find that since they are aware, they can now interface and network with us to see how they can support because kidney transplantation is a very cost intensive venture,” Alasia said.
On his part, the UPTH Transplant Team Lead, Professor Onyenunam Okeke said the presentation at the Ground Rounds centred on the prospects of starting a kidney transplant programme in UPTH, adding that the hospital has qualified personnel to handle kidney disease cases.
“UPTH has a large team. UPTH is set up as an institution for trainning, for service and for research but we are highlighting the area of service, so we have alot of skilled personnel and we have the patients that also requires transplant. We have not started before now but we are in the process of starting the transplant programme,” Okeke stated.
He disclosed that the programme is part of the management’s strategic programme, stating that the hospital is collaborating with organisations and sister institutions to get the service started.
“The present management of the hospital as part of the five years development programme wants to carryout this kidney transplant.
We cannot do it alone so we are collaborating with some centres, both locally and internationally and through the effort of management, we have a specific building that’s design for it,” he said.
Okeke who is also the Deputy Provost, College of Health Sciences, University of Port Harcourt urged members of the people to know that when kidney fails they can be replaced, stressing that the process of transplantation is safe and for all.
