The University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan has installed a complete unit of Cardiology Theatre and Intensive Care Unit, fully complemented by a state of the art Catheterisation Laboratory (Cath Lab).
The Cath lab, the first of its kind in any teaching hospital in the country is expected to boost intervention radiology considerably.
Describing the breakthrough in the nation’s public health care system, as ‘long awaited’, the Chief Medical Director of UCH, Professor Temitope Alonge, noted that the increase in mortality from heart related disease and stroke, necessitated the huge investment.
Inspecting the facility, consultant intervention radiologist, Dr. Ahmed Ahidjo described the laboratory as the best of its kind anywhere in the world and expressed the optimism that it will reduce overseas medical trips for Nigerians with heart diseases.
According to Prof Alonge, 530 people between the ages of 24-30 died from stroke at UCH, Ibadan in 2011. The CMD noted that “this alarming figure necessitated the urgent intervention of the Complete Cardio unit.”
Comprising a standard Cardio-thoracic theatre with video prepared lights, the state of the art Catheterisation Laboratory also has the Angiography Suit with X ray tube, detector and automated pump injector, which is fully complemented with a 3 bedded Intensive Care Unit.
Prof. Alonge is optimistic that this intervention will change the face of ‘interventional medicine’.
Dr. Ahidjo who confirmed that the Cath Lab is the first of its kind in Nigeria and the latest technology globally, said surgical procedures can be done without opening patients up in the Angiography Suit.
The expert in charge of supply and maintenance of the equipment, Mrs. Claire Omatseye explained that all the walls are made of stainless steel, coated with anti-bacterial materials while the floors are made with polyvinyl materials.
She opined that the installations will reverse brain and patients drain in the country.