The Chief Consultant Orthopeadics Surgeon and Proprietor of Alliance Hospital, Abuja, Dr. Christopher Otabor has called on Nigeria government to Collaborate between public and private sectors in health care to improve patient care and reduce cost in the country.
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Dr. Otabor made the recommendation during an interactive session with the Association of Nigeria Health Journalists (ANHEJ) in Abuja, the nations capital.
The founder of the Abuja based multi-specialty hospital argued that Private sector provide majority of health care but government institutions compete instead of collaborating with private sector.
“Inefficiency in public private partnerships in managing resources, including lack or Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machines in hospitals, health care cost and quality in Nigeria, the cost of medical equipment and supplies is a significant factor in the hight cost of health care in Nigeria, with some hospital charging up to 4 times more than others for the same procedures,” he said.
Dr. Otabor said, “Lack of enough training institutions and accredited medical universities in Nigeria contributes to the scarcity of skilled healthcare professionals leading to long wait time and inadequate care.”
According to him, it is practically impossible for a kidney to be harvested without the possible presence of recipient lying beside the donor.
He explains that any kidney harvested, must be transplanted within 10 minutes.
The Chief Consultant Orthopeadics Surgeon and proprietor of Alliance Hospital described the claims of secret human kidney harvest in some hospitals in the country as display of ignorance by people who he said, do not know how kidneys are harvested for transplant.
He said kidney harvested cannot be alive beyond 10 minutes if not transplanted, insisting that unless donated to the recipient within the time, it would be useless and of no effect.
Otabor said , “Mrs. Kehinde Kamal, a 45-year-old mother of four, whose kidney was alleged to have been harvested by one Dr. Noah Kekere of Murna Clinic and Maternity in Jos, may have been born with only one, some persons were born with just one kidney.”
He appealed to the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate to get fully involved in the case by setting up a panel of experts to probe the allegation with a view to unravelling the truth and not leave it in the hands of police.
“To harvest a kidney is a big deal unless they are saying that the man had harvested it to use for ritual. But if it is harvested to give to another human being, it is not possible to harvest when there is no possible recipient beside the donor.
“First of all, they said that the surgery lasted seven hours, it could have been a complicated appendix because no kidney harvesting lasts for seven hours. In two or three hours you are done. And for you to harvest a kidney, there is a synchronous surgery going on-the donor surgery and the recipient surgery must be going on at the same time.
“You cannot take a kidney out of a human being and wait for 10 minutes before you put it into the recipient, otherwise that kidney is useless in your hands.
“So what did the Doctor Kekere do with a kidney that they said he harvested? And before you harvest a kidney, there must have been almost one month minimum of test to and fro, because you can harvest a kidney that is not even okay. So you have to do some tests to make sure that the kidneys are working fine before you pick one of the two. And then you also do test on both persons. You do test for compatibility
“We later found out that the Dr. Kekere is not a medical doctor. He only invested in a hospital,” he added.
Dr. Otabor said in the unlikely event that it was harvested, then the man must be either a ritualist or he’s using it for pepper soup, because he cannot use it for another person.
It’s a big deal that you need to have two big surgeries going on at the same time and the cost of harvesting a kidney, not more than ten surgeons in an entire country has safely removed a kidney for transplant.
He said it is a very highly skilled procedure, “We used to get people from India to come and harvest kidneys for us, so it is not like any surgeon can just go in and harvest it.”
The medical expert said such stories are sensational but must be approached from the point of knowledge.
