Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State has launched a free open heart surgery for patients with cardiac malfunction in Kano.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the exercise is sponsored by Saudi Arabia Government in partnership with Muslim World League and Aminu Kano Teaching hospital (AKTH).
Flagging off the operation on Friday in Kano, Yusuf renewed the commitment of his administration to collaborate with any Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs), spirited individuals and philanthropists willing to assist in providing specialised training to the health personnel and medical care to the patients in need of such services.
Yusuf expressed happiness as the initiative would augment the efforts of the state government in giving the health sector the desired attention.
“We are very much delighted to have you in Kano for this gigantic assistance. Kano state is the most populous state in Nigeria with over 21 million people.
“We have the most vulnerable people, downtrodden masses that do not have any means of taking care of their health needs.
“We will stick to our campaign promises of building general hospitals across the 44 local governments and primary healthcare centres across the state and re-introduce mobile clinics to cater for the people in rural areas who are in need of medical attention free of charge,” he said.
The Head of the medical team from Saudi Arabia, Dr Uthman Al-uthman Sa'ad, said the group comprised 20 cardiac surgeons who will perform the surgery and pledged to do their best to achieve the set goals.
Earlier, the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Prof. Abdulrahman Sheshe, described the intervention as timely, saying as there is an increase of heart disease related cases especially in Northern Nigeria due to the prevalence of hypertension cases.
Sheshe expressed optimism that Yusuf’s government would formulate policies to re-invigorate the health sector and reduce medical tourism in the search for specialised treatment.