By Ayoni M. Agbabiaka
Respite has come the way of residents of Karu and others in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as the Karu General Hospital has commenced operations.
The hospital which started operation on October 2 has so far tended to at least 70 patients with psychological and behavioural challenges.
The development would save persons living in Karu and its environs seeking health care the stress of having to travel to places like Nyanya, Asokoro, Maitama and Wuse to access services.
The Secretary, Health and Human Services Secretariat, Dr. Demola Onakomaiya, said this when he visited the hospital.
He said the hospital took off on October 2, 2014, with the commencement of clinical services at Hospital’s Behavioural Medicine Unit.
He noted that the development marked the commencement of services to patients with psychological and behavioural challenges and to date, a total of 69 patients had been for diagnoses and treatment.
Onakomaiya added that the era of referring patients with psychological and behavioural challenges to Kaduna Psychiatric Hospital was over as the Karu Specialist Hospital had both human and material resources to diagnose and treat different forms of psychological and behavioural challenges.
He said the hospital has a dedicated building for behavioural medicine and is the only one of its kind in the whole of the middle belt of Nigeria.
He added that the Behavioural Medicine Unit of the hospital is equipped with the state of the art equipment including Electro Encephaco Grain (EEG) Machine, Electro Convulsive Therapy (ECT) Machine and Laboratory Equipment in addition to good satellite pharmacy that is stocked with specialised drugs and has a number of specialists including four consultants, one senior registrar, senior medical officers and other support staff.
According to him, the behavioural services in FCT Administration’s hospitals have now been centralised as the units formerly rendering such services in Asokoro, Kubwa and Wuse hospitals have been closed down, except that Wuse still provides out-patient clinics two days in a week.
The secretary assured FCT residents that FCT Administration under the leadership of Sen. Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, would do everything possible to ensure that other departments of the hospital commence clinical services soon.