Medical Director, Nigerian-Turkish Nizamiye Hospital, Abuja, Dr. Mustapha Ashen, has said the hospital was poised to providing similar healthcare services being sought by Nigerian patients abroad.
Ashen said this in Abuja at the weekend while signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with VEFA Tourism and Travels Agency on transportation of patients with special cases to Turkey, assuring that the hospital would reduce medical tourism by Nigerians “because the target of the hospital is to handle all medical cases.”
He said: “we treat most of the cases that Nigerians seek help for abroad, but for now, anyone we cannot handle, we send the patient to Turkey, especially cardiovascular diseases. However, we will start having kidney transplants here; but for now, we send such patients to Turkey.
“Before a patient is sent to Turkey, we send his or her medical report and in the last two months, we sent seven patients, out of which, three are back; one of them had a successful kidney transplant. Before long, all diseases will be handled here in Nigeria in this hospital.”
He said the cost of treatment in the hospital was affordable as it was the same as charged in other private hospitals in the FCT, adding that “the hospital will soon provide free cataract treatment to no fewer than 1,500 Nigerians, in collaboration with some non-governmental organisations (NGOs).”
Ashen said the planned free cataract treatment would commence once all needed equipment were procured, adding that the hospital operated mobile clinics, in which it visited rural areas in partnership with the FCT Administration, which identified the areas that needed medical help.
On his part, the Agent Manager, VERA Tourism and Travels Agency, Mr Selami Altay,said the agency would offer 20 per cent discount on cost of transportation to patients with special cases that must be taken to Turkey.