The management of the State House Clinic says it is partnering with the Apollo Hospital India to bring succour to patients suffering from cancer, kidney and heart related ailments in the country.
The Indian hospital health is expected to offer consultancy on malignant cancer, end stage heart failure and remedies as well as kidney transplant.
The Medical Director, State House Clinic, Dr Munir Yakasai, who welcomed the delegation of medical consultants from New Delhi, India, said the need to understudy India’s response to national health emergencies and guarantee qualitative health care provision informed the collaboration with Apollo hospital.
He said: “It is a friendly medical collaboration and this has been going on for long, for almost six to seven years now.
“We noticed that a lot of patients from Nigeria have been going to India for treatment.
“Some of them are of course our patients and we noticed that among those hospitals in India, Apollo Hospital happened to be one of the best so far that we have been getting good response and feedback from and whenever we send our patient there, he/she comes back much better.”
While giving a history of how the collaboration started, Yakasai said: “Apollo hospital approached us some years ago, when they came and introduced their hospital to us, they delivered lectures and some of our personnel were sent to India, where they spent up to six weeks receiving training free of charge.
“This is something that we truly appreciate and once in a while they come around and give us lectures and if we have any question that requires their attention, we introduce such patients and they see them here so it is a good collaboration.
Leader of the delegation, Dr Varun Sukhija, said Apollo had the largest group of hospitals in India, with over 73.
According to him, the hospital’s collaboration with State House Clinic is basically aimed at exchanging knowledge with Nigerian doctors.
He said the mission in Africa was always a knowledge exchange programme, adding that it didn’t want a situation whereby patients must travel to India for treatment.
He said the hospital wa creating a path through which there would be knowledge exchange with Nigerian doctors too.
“So, we also have many Nigerian doctors through that path and we are giving them training in Apollo hospitals New Delhi.
“We have over 73 centres where they are being trained and when they are done, they will come and give their services to their Nigerian colleagues and can give treatment to patients locally here in Nigeria also,” he stated.
Sukhija, who has visited Nigeria many times, described Nigeria as a great country, as he expressed delight that very soon, kidney and bone marrow transplant would be carried out in the country.
He said: “Nigeria is a great country. Whatever we are doing or we are trying to tell them, they always learn everything so many things have now started in Nigeria as well; like liver, kidney and bone marrow transplant, these are things that very soon they will start in Nigeria.
“You can see that many countries are coming to Nigeria now for local treatment. This is the way beyond that change we are bringing,” he said.
Adding her voice, the representative of Apollo Information Centre in Abuja, Mrs Anita Yado, commended the Nigerian government for doing well in many facets, especially the health sector.
“They are really working very hard. The health sector here is improving; so many hospitals have come up.
“I am in contact with many doctors as well and I am seeing that they are highly qualified doctors and this initiative from Apollo hospital can bring a lot of changes also,” she said.
Yado, who has lived in Nigeria’s capital for 20 years, described herself as a Nigerian.
The medical delegation from India is expected to deliver lectures on hipec in surface malignancies, surgeries for end stage heart failure and kidney transplant in COVID-19 times.
