Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom state has approved the establishment of 10 new dialysis centres, one for each of the 10 federal constituencies in the state.
The governor also directed the immediate commencement of recruitment and training of professionals to meet the manpower needs of the dialysis centres.
Eno said this on Monday in Eket, while inaugurating a Dialysis Centre donated by a church in the state.
The governor, who noted that the proposed centres would be fully operational by June 2024, directed the deployment of relevant personnel from the state hospitals to the inaugurated dialysis centre to ensure that the facility is not underutilised due to lack of personnel.
He said, “I am directing the Commissioner for Health and critical stakeholders of the state to ensure that they provide a dialysis centre in each federal constituency and guarantee me that between now and June 2024, those dialysis centres will be available and functional.
“I have already approved the deployment of staff to the centre. I had given the Commissioner for Health approval to look for qualified people to come and work here. I have also directed the Head of the Civil Service to work with the Ministry of Health and the Civil Service Commission to absorb them as quickly as possible so that we can have permanent staff here. We don’t want to have equipment here, yet we don’t have the manpower to operate them.”
While making a case for aggressive sensitisation on kidney-related ailments and measures to checkmate their occurrence, the governor directed the Ministry of Health to collaborate with the Ministry of Information and Office of the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor to undertake the sensitisation.
