BENIN – The Chief Medical Director (CMD), University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), Prof. Michael Ibadin, said the hospital was facing challenges that had prevented it from carrying out kidney transplants.
Ibadin made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin, Edo, on Sunday.
He said that each time the hospital wanted to carry out a transplant, one challenge often disrupted it.
He disclosed that one of the challenges were industrial actions by health workers, saying “the last Nigerian Medical Association strike caused us a lot of troubles; all the plans we had for a transplant were truncated”.
“We need to go back to the drawing board to activate the whole process again.
“We had set September, this year, as our deadline to begin transplant, but the challenges prevented us from making progress.
“I will call the stakeholders and we will set a new target for ourselves,” he said.
The CMD said that UBTH had the required facilities, including equipment and drugs, and trained the personnel, comprising surgeons, anesthetists and physicians, to manage the patients.
“Where the patients will be kept after the transplant is also in place,” he added. (NAN)
