The Bayelsa State Government wednesday boasted that its Specialist Hospital situated in Yenagoa can now reverse some life-threatening medical conditions, including strokes, when presented within the first hour of attack and dead limbs due to chronic diabetes. Speaking while presenting his ministry’s scorecard at the Inter-Ministerial/Agency briefing wednesday at the Gabriel Okara Cultural Centre, Yenagoa, the state Commissioner for Health, Professor Ebitimitula Etebu, said the government has acquired the latest equipment available in the field of medicine. He said: “We have what we call Cath Lab. And u know in Nigeria even if we buy highfalutin equipment we don’t use them. But here it is different. When you have a stroke and you come in at the right or appropriate time, it is possible for us to reverse it.
“Most people who have a stroke are either paralysed on one side of the face, arm or leg. If such patients are brought in within an hour, we can now reverse the processes that led to it and ensure that blood flows to the affected vein, then patient will live.” He added: “People with diabetes do not need to be afraid anymore. In our centre here, we can take blood back into the affected vessels and back into the limb and that patient will walk around without any surgery.” The state government noted that the aforementioned were visible results of various policies and programmes in the health sector which are now impacting on the lives of the people. Professor Etebu maintained that most of the health facilities inherited from the previous administrations were obsolete while the General Hospitals were mere consulting clinics without personnel when the current administration came in. “It is sad to note that, prior to this period, our people travelled several kilometres to neighbouring states for medical treatment and in the process many lost their lives,” he noted. On the outbreak of Lassa fever in some parts of the country, the professor assured that measures had been put in place to check the spread. He said the state successfully treated and discharged over 130 cases of the dreaded monkey pox epidemic, with the support of the state government and asked residents not to fret about reported cases of Lassa fever in some parts of the country. Speaking about the newly introduced Bayelsa Health Service Scheme, he said the people of the state now have access to medical/health facilities with their monthly savings, adding that the programme has been expanded to cater for all pregnant women in the state to reduce the maternal and infant mortality rates. The commissioner highlighted the establishment of the Diagnostic Centre, Drug Storage and Distribution Centre, Construction of modern referral Centres across the eight local government areas, construction of house officers’ quarters at the Federal Medical Centre and production of specialist manpower as part of the government achievement in the health sector.
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