As the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, OAUTHC, marked its 50th anniversary, the Chief Medical Director, Professor John Okeniyi, said the institution remains the best child-friendly hospital in Nigeria.
He said the hospital remains the only consistent health institution in the country where open heart surgeries, especially in children with congenital heart disease, are appropriately treated.
Speaking after unveiling the anniversary logo at the teaching hospital complex in Ile-Ife, Osun State, on Wednesday, he said the hospital is leading in healthcare delivery with so many pioneering achievements in several fields.
“Our major contributions to healthcare in Nigeria range from open heart surgery, where we are the one consistently doing open heart surgeries, especially in children with congenital heart disease, where we do lesions like holes in the heart, as it’s called a ventricular septal defect, atrial septal defect.
“Even children with acquired heart diseases from rheumatic heart disease. We do rheumatic valve replacement, mitral valve replacement, and aortic replacement. We are doing a lot to improve the lot of children in Nigeria.
“We are a World Health Organisation, WHO, Certified Centre of Excellence in Newborn Care, Neonatal Congenital Medicine, and also we are also partnering with the Royal College of London Pediatrics in London for child development. We have a modern child development centre. We have the largest paediatric surgical centre in Nigeria.
“In adults where they have coronary heart disease, where after heart attacks you see people with heart damage, we have to replace the hearts that are damaged in terms of the vessels. So, that is one of the things we do keenly. We are also the pioneer in renal replacement therapy. We are a pioneer and leading training center and service provider in laparoscopic surgery that is minimal. Access surgeries, keyhole surgeries in adults and in children.
“We’ve done quite exceedingly well in terms of malignancies and treatments. Gynecological malignancies, that is, cancers in women, cervical cancer, endometrial cancers, breast cancers and things like that. We are a leading center, in fact, not just in the provision of those services. We are also in terms of diagnosis”, he said.
Professor Okeniyi added that the institution has been treating patients with blood cancer, leukemia, free of charge for almost a decade
“We have three leading equipment in Immunohistochemistry. Which we pioneered this country and in terms of blood cancers in leukemias, we provide free treatments for persons with cancers of the blood, which we’ve been doing for almost a decade.”
While commending the Federal Government, he said improvement in budgetary allocation from N2.5billion to N20billion afforded the hospital the opportunity to achieve many landmark, urging President Bola Tinubu not to relax in ensuring that Nigeria can provide healthcare delivery for its citizens and stop health tourism.
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