John Shiklam writes that the partnership between the famous Dr. Agarwal's Eye Institute, India, and Thelish Eye Centre, Kaduna, has contributed in reducing medical tourism among Nigerians

The partnership between the famous Dr. Agarwal's Eye Institute, India, and Thelish Eye Centre, Kaduna, Kaduna State, has given hope to those desperately seeking for solutions to various visual problems.

The hospital has offered Nigerians the opportunity of staying in their country and receiving world-class medical treatment which they hitherto sought abroad.

Hundreds of people from far and near with various eye problems have continued to trooped to the centre to address problems affecting eyes.

With the state-of-the-art equipment and technology, it takes just about 20 minutes to operate on a patient who is nearly going blind with cataract without pains and trauma associated with surgical operations.

Some of the world class equipment include; Sovereign Phacoemalcification Machine, Zies Optical Coherence Tomography; Zeis Fundus Flouecsein Angiography and Zeis Surgical Microscope among several others.

The machines, according to the Chief Medical Director of the Centre, Dr. Imeh Etuk, cost hundreds of millions of naira. This is complimented with Specialist Ophthalmology consultants and eye surgeons, Vitreorentinal consultants and qualified technicians and technologists who handle the equipment.

The Centre was initially manned by expatriate consultants, specialists and technicians, mainly from India with some few Nigerians, but according to Etuk, the expatriates had been reduced and replaced with Nigerians.

"At the moment we have reduce the expatriate strength very considerably, we have some Nigerians that handle the equipment now. Except for some very specialised cases, coniac plan and retina cases that the experts handle, most of these things are handle by Nigerians.

"We had to train them (Nigerians), this has also reduced overhead cost for us. The partnership is still running but we decided to reduce the input of the expatriates. The technology was their own and they were the only ones that could handle the equipment," he said.

Etuk noted that since the partnership with the Dr. Agarwal's Eye Institute, India over four years ago, "the journey has been very good and very satisfactory in the sense that some of the specialised surgeries that Nigerians used to traveled abroad for, can now be done here".

According to him, there shouldn't be no need for people to travel to India, Paris and other places for treatment that can be done at the centre, adding that, Coniac transplant which hitherto could not be handled in Nigeria or Africa, can be done at the centre.

"Before now, there was nowhere in the country or Africa that they do transplant. You have to travel out to do transplant. We can do all of that here. Retina cases which services were not available before now, we offer those services here.

"This has given us fame as people all over the country come here. We are also outstanding in retina cases in Nigeria. This has been our great success to the glory of God."

He disclosed that the most common cases being handled at the hospital on a daily basis were glaucoma and cataract.

According to him, "Glaucoma is in the gene and it cannot be avoided, it runs in the family, sometimes it is hereditary, so the only way to manage it, is to ensure regular checks because any damage done by glaucoma is irreversible, but we can stop the damage as soon as we notice it in its early stage. So we always advise that people should go for regular checks.

"For cataract, it comes with age and other factors. It comes with some diseases like diabetes. It comes as a result of some of the drugs we take. If you are diabetic, you try to keep your sugar level under strict control, you must try to avoid harsh sun and watch the type of drugs you take"

He noted that "Most people don't know that diabetes affect their eyes, and once you are diagnose of diabetics, you need to be checking your eyes every six months. Diabetes damages the eye and by the time you notice the sign and symptoms, your vision is no longer clear and at that point it is already too late.

"For example, when you have diabetes, it affects the blood vessels that affect the eye, some of the blood vessels get blocked and when they get blocked, they send signal to the brain of being starved of oxygen. What the brain does is to create new blood vessels and those new blood vessels are abnormal, they rapture very easily and spill blood at the back of the eye. That is what causes the blindness."

According to Etuk, the idea of the partnership came when he met with the world founder and Chairman of Dr. Agarwal's Eye Institute, India, the renowned Dr. J. Agarwal, during the eye seminar in India in 2009.

"I was captivated by the class and quality of his Institute all over India. I wanted Nigeria to also have this kind of quality and yet affordable eye treatment. So we entered into a collaboration that has become very beneficial to Nigerians," he said.

Located on Lafia Road by Independence Way, Kaduna, patients from all walks of life, rich and poor, are welcomed to a serene and sparklingly clean environment by polite, courteous and smiling nurses receptionists.

Everything at the Centre is computerised and patients don't have to spend endless time to be attended to.

Some of the patients who spoke with THISDAY were elated that they finally find solutions to their eye problems after going from one hospital to the other.

One of such patients was Oloto Alphonsus, from Enugu State who brought his 12-years-old son, Pascal to the hospital.

According to Alphonsus, "about six years ago, my son a Junior Secondary School (JSS) 2, had an accident which affected his right eye. Somebody threw a stick which hit him on his right eye and affected the black part of the eye".

He explained that his son was "first operated at the University Teaching Hospital Enugu (UNTH), pointing out that although the operation was successful as four pieces of wood were removed from the eye, he was told that where the wood was removed, was growing cataract and he was advised to take the boy for a second operation so that the cataract would be removed whenever he was healed from the first operation.

"We later went to about three hospitals to remove the cataract but they told us that the eye was dead and they wanted to remove it and put an artificial eye for him. But I objected to that.

"One day when I was sharing my problem at a meeting, somebody told me about a hospital Thelish Eye Centre in Kaduna and he encouraged me to try, but I was scared of coming to Kaduna because I was told that Kaduna is a Boko Haram place.

"But because of the seriousness of the problem of my child, I took the bull by the horns and to the glory of God, the operation was successful and my son has regained his sight with the eye.

According to Alphonsus, "80 per cent of people in Nigeria are dying because, even if you have the money, you may not know where to go and get quality treatment for your ailment.

Hospitals like Thelish have provided Nigerians who don't have the wherewithal to travel abroad to seek for medical solutions to their ailments.

It is common knowledge that Nigeria loses huge sums in capital flight to medical tourism, as some citizens often complain that most of the nation's hospitals lack the modern equipment needed for effective diagnosis and treatment.

Indeed, recent statistics from the Senate Committee on Health indicate that Nigerians spend about N80 billion annually on medical treatments abroad.

The most popular destinations for the medical tourism are India, Germany, UK, Israel and some other Middle-East countries.

Over the years, the private sector in Nigeria has been striving to curb medical tourism by establishing hospitals with the state-of-the-art equipment.

Dr. Etuk observed that a lot of Nigerians go out almost on a daily basis to seek medical help abroad, noting that nearly all the hospitals that attend to them outside the country are privately owned.

According to Dr. Etuk, if the private sector is encouraged to take the lead in the provision of qualitative medical services; it would save the amount of money Nigerians spent outside the country for treatment.

Private sector initiatives such as Thelish will go a long way in ensuring government's efforts to halt the enormous capital flight arising from increased medical tourism and the avoidable stress experienced by Nigerians during such trips.

Analysts are of the view that improved, qualitative hospital services would certainly reduce the number of Nigerians traveling to Europe, India and the Middle-East for medical treatment.

Besides, Nigeria is blessed with a lot of qualified, seasoned and proficient medical personnel, including doctors, who can manage any disease and medical condition.