The Rivers State government says hip and knee replacement surgeries will now be done routinely at the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital, Port Harcourt.
The Health Commissioner in the state, Dr. Sampson Parker stated this when a team of doctors and instrumentalists from Mathys European Orthopaedics paid him a courtesy call shortly after supervising total hip and knee replacement surgeries carried out by orthopaedic surgeons at the Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital in Port Harcourt.
The Commissioner said carrying out the surgeries routinely at the BMSH will save the government millions of naira because one knee replacement costs about five million naira for those going abroad.
He said, “this will now be done in house”.
According to him, “health care delivery is not about building structures but the things going on inside the structures.
“This is what Governor Amaechi calls specialist manpower development. This to my mind is one of the biggest legacies the present administration is going to live behind”.
He disclosed that arrangements have reached advanced stages to phase out some of the equipment at the BMSH with a view to replacing them with new ones.
He stated that upgrading of equipment was an ongoing process even in advanced countries.
Earlier, Dr. Gorgio Grassi and Roland Rufenacht of Mathys European Orthopaedics informed the Commissioner that they were impressed with the performance of the BMSH orthopaedic doctors.
It would be recalled that the arthroplasty programme began in April, 2009 as part of the Specialist Manpower Development of the Rivers State Ministry of Health.
The programme is undertaken with Mathys European Orthopaedics.
A total of 41 patients have benefited from the programme with 53 knees replaced.
Three Orthopaedic Surgeons and two nurses have also been trained in France and Belgium as part of the programme.
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