Ophthalmology: Giant Strides Of National Eye Centre, Kaduna : By Nicholas Dekera

Commissioned in 1992 with the mandate to provide preventive, curative and rehabilitative eye care services to all Nigerians and even patients from the West African sub-region, National Eye Centre Kaduna has being fortunate to have reputable managerial teams who ensured that the Hospital maintain its lead in eye care services.

An over view of the past four years of stewardship led by the Chief Medical Director Dr. Mahmoud Alhassan, witnessed remarkable additions in terms of Patient Attendance, Sub-Specialty Manpower Development, Complex Eye Test/Investigations, Equipment, infrastructural development and donations leading to over all improved service delivery and reach to Nigerians from all strata of life needing eye health care.

Complex Eye Tests/Investigations

Eye is a delicate organ, therefore, accurate diagnosis of most ocular diseases require painstaking evaluation. Recent advancement in technology has made it possible to identify majority of eye pathologies with some reasonable degree of accuracy and precision. A number of latest investigation modalities are accessible in the Centre. The under listed are some of the complex tests newly offered in the institution

Infrastructural Development At The National Eye Centre From 2015 – Till Date

The Centre has witnessed rapid infrastructural development over the years from November 2015 to date. Amongst the capital Projects undertaken by the present Leadership are as listed below:

1. Completion of 50 Rooks Patient Relations Transit Camp.
2. Rehabilitation of dilapidated walk ways, concrete pavements and roof.
3. Rehabilitation of abandoned centralized sewage treatment plant.
4. Building and Structural Rehabilitation work at Administrative Building i.e (Block A), including upgrading of plumbing and Sanitary fixtures and also the upgrading of the building façade.
5. Building and Structural Rehabilitation work at all specialized Clinics i.e (Block B) , including upgrading of plumbing and Sanitary fixtures, retrofitting of Electrical fitting.
6. Complete Rehabilitation of the Primary Care Clinics (PCC) , patients wards (Block E and C) , including upgrade of all sanitary fixtures, plumbing fixtures, electrical fittings and building envelop maintenance.
7. Ongoing comprehensive Rehabilitation work at Block (F) which houses the main theatre (housing 6 nos independent theatre suites), and also the Community Ophthalmology, residency training and refraction Units.
8. Procurement of utility vehicles for hospital logistics i.e Toyota Hilux, Hyundai Elentra, Toyota Corolla.
9. During the period under review, water and electricity for clinical and other uses have improved significantly especially with the drilling of additional boreholes and increased investment in maintenance of facilities.
10. The Management has commenced a phased upgrade of the substations and power control equipments to ensure adequate and uninterrupted power supply to the hospital complex.

Sub-specialty Manpower Development

The hospital in the last four years provided state-of-the art facilities and enabling environment to provide special ophthalmic services for patients in need of them. The paucity of such care in the past has led to exodus of Nigerians out of the country to access the services in developed countries of Europe, America and Asia. For instance, a number of patients had to commit huge amount of resources to travel out in order to have corneal transplant or vitreo-retinal surgeries which the hospital now offers. Therefore, its pertinent to note that our effort in human capital development has started yielding results though the complexity in accessing cornea tissue for transplant is still work in progress.

The knowledge of pivotal of human development as instrument for institutional transformation was the major driving force behind our investment in training of subspecialists in the hospital.
There is more than 100% improvement on sub-specialized manpower. The subspecialists were largely trained in various world – class institutions of India and Bangladesh. Their training was also supported by CommonWealth Eye Health Consortium (CEHC); an intervention programme of Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust Fund. The overall idea and aspiration of the human capital development is to make our institution a training ground for subspecialists in the country and to also help curb the gale of medical tourism bedevilling our health and economic sector.

Overall Hospital Attendance

The hospital has a number of service points comprising of Primary Care Clinic (PCC) which also doubles as general outpatient unit, specialty clinics, staff clinic, refraction unit and operation theatres. The bulk of the patients are seen in PCC and specialty clinics from where they are sorted out into those that need refraction, surgical or medical treatment. The average patients uptake of services has jumped from less than thirty-five thousand from 2011 – 2014 to thirty-nine thousand, two hundred and sixty-one from 2015 – 2018.

Electronic Medical Records (EMR)

This Management has alsobeen able to start Electronic Medical Records (EMR) which is the practice globally.

Medical Equipment Procured Within the past four years

1. Equipping of sub-Specialty Clinics
2. Procurement of ALCON Posterior Vitrectomy Machine/Accessories
3. Purchase of a set of Optical Machine
4. Computer software acquisition
5. Procurement of various project vehicles
6. Computerization of critical areas in the Hospital
7. Construction and establishment of cornea bank
8. Supply of 2 nos Anaesthesia Machine
9. Construction and Equipping of Artificial Eye production lab
10. Supply of Anterior Segment/Cornea Assessment Equipment
11. Computer software Acquisition
12. Purchase of Medical Equipment – OCTA Machine and SL Bio- Microscope Monitors
13. Supply of IRIDEX Micro Pulse LASER Machine
14. 1 Unit EZ %%)) B-SCAN with UBM option Sonomed USA
15. Accessories for B-SCAN
16. 14 nos Ophthalmoscope Keeler UK
17. 1 no Binocular indirect ophthalmoscope (Wireless)
18. 2 no Lens+60D, 78D
19. 2 no Cataract sets
20. 1 no Diathermy machine
21. 1 unit Refractor Keratomater
22. 2 no B-Scan Machine probes EZ scan AB 5500 (USA)
23. 1 no Cautery Machine
24. Index Laser Diode photo coagular system Japan Firbre Optic cable
25. Anterior vitrectomy Machine (Germany)probes
26. 1 no. Ultra low Temperature Chest Freezer
27. 1 no. laboratory Refrigerator
28. Corneal Transplant set
29. Auto-keratometer
30. Iridek Micro Pulse Laser Machine
31. A & B Scan Machine
32. Scanoptic Microscope eye Piece
33. Sonomed “A’’ Probe Scan
34. Topcon A/T Table Plus Top
35. Topcon OCTA Machine
36. Slit Lamps Bio-microscope
37. Semi Automated Chemistry analyser
38. 10x Adjustable Eye Piece
39. 1 no Inverter 7.5 KVA Pure Sine Waves 200 Ah Batteries
40. Installation of inverter with 10 Batteries Racks, Cables and other Connector

Satellite Stations (Community Outreach)

In our determination to take eye care to doorsteps of rural dwellers especially women and children, the hospital sought the collaboration of Kaduna State Government to establish a satellite station in General hospital Turunku in Igabi Local Government Area of the state through an initiative called National Eye Centre Community Eye Care Programme (NECCEP) where the hospital provides technical and logistic support to allow patients to access cheap, yet qualitative eye care in their enclave. The programme has since been a success story and many people regained their slights through the initiative.

Satellite Stations (Community Outreach)

In our determination to take eye care to doorsteps of rural dwellers especially women and children, the hospital sought the collaboration of Kaduna State Government to establish a satellite station in General hospital Turunku in Igabi Local Government Area of the state through an initiative called National Eye Centre Community Eye Care Programme (NECCEP) where the hospital provides technical and logistic support to allow patients to access cheap, yet qualitative eye care in their enclave. The programme has since been a success story and many people regained their sights through the initiative.

Other Community Outreaches carried out Within the period include:

· Medical outreach services in Kaduna Senatorial District (Makarifi & Giwa)
· Medical outreach services in Kaduna metropolis, Kaduna
· Medical outreach services in Kafanchan
· Medical outreach services in Kagoro Town

International Collaboration and Linkages
The hospital had attempted to collaborate with individuals and institutions outside the country for mutual benefit of the involved parties. Consequently, there had been in-house training of clinical staff by foreign mentors who volunteered to come to our institution. We had Vitreo retinal training by Dr Ihab Sa’ad Othman, an Egyptian Vitreo retinal Surgeon of international refute and another Vitreoretinal surgeon from Ethopia ,Dr Dereje Negussie Woyessa.

Inspite of daunting challenges in the face of inadequate funding, the Management headed by Dr. Mahmoud Alhassan within the last four years has made giant strides towards the mandate of the hospital as shown in this report and hopes to make more in the years ahead