13th December, 2011
With the completion of the Cardiac and Renal Centre at the Gbagada General Hospital as well as the Trauma and Burns Centre, the Babatunde Fashola administration in Lagos State has once again demonstrated that it is responsive to the yearnings of Lagosians.
The completion of these centres in Lagos shows that the present administration in the state is focused and desirous of leaving a lasting legacy that will be remembered for long by generations yet unborn.
With the completion of these centres, it is our hope that Nigerians involved in serious motor accidents, burns, kidney and heart-related diseases will no longer have to be taken abroad at exorbitant cost for treatment.
Apart from saving the country the much needed foreign exchange that could have been used to treat these category of patients abroad, the availability of the centre locally will save thousands of heart and kidney patients the agony of seeking for millions of Naira to travel abroad for the treatment of the diseases.
Governor Fashola butressed this when he declared during his familiarisation tour of the Gbagada General Hospital complex that the establishment of the centres will help to reduce capital flight as a result of taking victims of cardio-vascular and renal complications abroad for treatment.
On many occasions, we have had cause to solicit for financial assistance from public-spirited Nigerians for people suffering from kidney and renal failure in our publications as part of our own social responsibility, but with the establishment of these centres, those suffering from these diseases can be taken there for treatment.
Now that we have a cardiac and renal centre in Lagos, it is hoped that the country’s doctors will demonstrate their expertise which hitherto had been denied them as a result of poor infrastructure in our hospitals.
Lastly, we implore the governor to equip these centres with first grade equipment and facilities. Treatment at the centres should also be made affordable to the patients. Government should also try as much as possible to subsidise the cost of treatment for indigent patients.