The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Monday approved the purchase of 7,887 dialysis consumables to make healthcare more accessible to citizens suffering from kidney diseases.
Minister of Health and Coordinating Minister for Social Work, Ali Pate, revealed this to correspondents after the council meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said the gesture aims to address the rising prevalence of non-communicable diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.
The consumables will be distributed across seven federal tertiary hospitals, including the University of Benin Teaching Hospital and the National Hospital in Abuja.
Pate stressed the importance of prevention alongside treatment, highlighting plans for public health screenings and lifestyle modifications to reduce future cases of kidney disease
He said: “In continuation of the President’s efforts including reducing the cost of access to health care services considering the vast non-communicable disease that we experience in Nigeria, hypertension, diabetes, kidney disease, several vascular diseases, council today approved one of purchase of 7,887 sets of dialysis consumables, for the use of Nigerians who are suffering from chronic disease in seven of our federal tertiary hospitals.
“These hospitals are University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Federal Medical Center in Ebuta Metta, Federal Medical Center in Owerri, the National Hospital, Abuja, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, University Teaching Hospital in Maiduguri and Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital in Bauchi.
“This is an effort to make it affordable the cost of treatment for those who suffer from integral disease through dialysis.
“It’s a start, but dealing with kidney disease requires not only dialysis but also prevention. That’s part of the efforts of the Federal Ministry of Health to ensure that we prevent cases of hypertension, diabetes that progress to kidney disease.
“We’re looking at screening so that Nigerians will be able to screen themselves for hypertension, diabetes, but also get the lifestyle modification so that we have less and less people requiring dialysis. But for those who are affected, we know that the cost of access to that is a major impediment.
“This effort by Mr. President is to bring relief within the context of several other policy measures to ensure that Nigerians have access to critical health care services. And with this approval, we’ll provide those and I think it will bring relief to many Nigerians and their families for accessing dances, services. They’re very much needed in our country.”
