The Benue State University Teaching Hospital, BSUTH, Makurdi charges just N60,00 for hip replacement surgeries as part of its social service to Benue people, according to Prof. Terrumun Swende, its Chief Medical Director, CMD.
Mr Swende told newsmen on Friday in Makurdi that the teaching hospital’s primal objective was not to generate revenue but to offer tertiary healthcare services, train doctors and consultants, and offer other social services.
He said that children requiring the surgery pay only half of the bills, adding that other hospitals charge as high as one million for the same surgery.
“Our focus here is not to make money. We offer lots of social services. For instance, we charge N15,000 per session of dialysis. That amount is not even enough to buy the consumables during the session,” he said.
The CMD said that the hospital was underfunded, but declared that its limited resources were being prudently managed to break new grounds.
He also said that the hospital was generally understaffed in certain areas because such experts were not available in the market to be recruited.
He announced that the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria had granted five years full accreditation to BSUTH to train consultant radiologists.
“Even in a depressed economy, we have been able to set up two new schools – School of Biochemical Engineering Training and School of Health Information Management.
“We have been able to attract 97,000 euros worth of equipment from Heineken Foundation International. Among the equipment are two ventilators (life support system), blood gas analyzers and monitors.
“We have also received another grant from AIDs Preventive Initiative Nigeria; the outfit has also kitted our blood band,” he said.
NAN
