Akwa Ibom State Governor, Umo Eno has approved the establishment of ten dialysis centres across the 10 federal constituencies in the state.
He also ordered the immediate recruitment and training of professionals to meet the manpower needs of the dialysis centres which are to be fully operational by June 2024.
Gov Eno stated this on Tuesday at the Immanuel General Hospital, Eket, where he commissioned the Enoch and Folu Adeboye Dialysis Center, donated by the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, General Overseer.
He also ordered the deployment of relevant personnel from state hospitals to the dialysis centre to ensure that the facility is not underutilized due to a lack of personnel.
“I am directing the Honourable Commissioner for Health and critical stakeholders of the state to ensure that they provide a Dialysis Center in each federal constituency and guarantee that between now and June 2024, those dialysis centres will be available and functional.
“I have already approved the deployment of staff to the centre. I had given the Honourable Commissioner for Health approval to headhunt for qualified people to come and work here. I have also directed the Head of the Civil Service to work with the Ministry of Health and the Civil Service Commission to absorb them as quickly as possible so that we can have permanent staff here. We don’t want to have equipment here, yet we don’t have the manpower to operate them”, he stated.
He made a case for aggressive sensitization on kidney-related ailments and measures to checkmate their occurrence and directed that the Ministry of Health collaborate with the Ministry of Information and Office of the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor to undertake the sensitization.
The Commissioner for Health, Professor Augustine Umoh, explaining the imperative of the intervention said dialysis is one of the best ways of managing kidney failure and lauded the State Government-RCCG partnership as he affirmed the delivery of three dialysis machines, with accessories, by the church to the centre.
