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Ambode donates $1m cancer mobile clinic

By Gbenga Salau (Lagos) and Gordi Udeajah, (Umuahia)
15 February 2018   |   4:10 am
Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, yesterday donated $1million mobile clinic to facilitate advocacy, screening and treatment of cancer in the state.

Lagos State governor, Akinwunmi Ambode

Reps laud FMC Umuahia over kidney transplants
Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, yesterday donated $1million mobile clinic to facilitate advocacy, screening and treatment of cancer in the state.

He made the presentation to a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP).

The governor said the donation was in fulfillment of his promise in June 2016, to support the fight against cancer.

The facility is to check the spread of cancer and improve life expectancy of victims.

The governor explained that the clinic became an option, because the state does not have the resources to set up cancer screening and treatment centres across the state.

He said the clinic, which is the first of its kind in Africa, is capable of managing the health status of Lagos residents.

This, he, said, is due to its facilities to treat both communicable and non-communicable diseases.

Ambode expressed the hope that the clinic would assist hopeless cancer patients and incorporate other residents who had been left out of the state’s healthcare services.

He promised to support the daily running of the mobile clinic.

The Executive Secretary of CECP, Abia Nzelu, who commended the governor for the gesture, disclosed that the mobile clinic has facilities for the screening and treatment of cancer.

Meanwhile, members of the House of Representatives’ Sub-committee on Health have lauded the Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, in Abia State for its success in kidney transplantation.

The Chairman of the sub-committee, Mohammed Jega, led members to the FMC, as part of its oversight functions.

The Medical Director, Dr. Abali Chuku, informed the lawmakers about the centre’s vision and achievements, and urged them to support its 2018 budget estimate.

Jega said the FMC’s success in Kidney transplants would help in checking medical tourism and reduce the associated cost implication.

“We are impressed that you are striving to improve your services by giving priority to completing pressing projects rather than going into new ones,” he said.

Chuku told the lawmakers that the FMC grew from a mission hospital in 1946, to become the first FMC in the country in 1992.

He disclosed that the centre, which had only four medical consultants in 1992, now has 86, even as its annual 10,000 patients inflow had grown to 125,000.

Chuku solicited budgetary allocation to meet its needs in Renal/Kidney revolution, while also asking for support in the recruitment of nurses to add to its 350 number.

He commended the Health Minister, Prof. Isaac Adewole and Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, who last month, pledged N100 million each to support the centre to serve the southeast and south-south zones.

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