By Rabiu Sanusi Kano
Kano State Governor Engr. Abba Kabir Yusuf has flagged off Open heart surgery for patients with cardiac malfunction free sponsored by Saudi Arabian government in partnership with Muslim World League and Aminu Kano Teaching hospital (AKTH) that was held at AKTH’s conference hall.
The executive Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf re-iterated the commitment of Kano state government to partner with any Non- governmenatal Organisations (NGO), spirited individuals and philanthropists willing to assist in providing specialized training to the health personnel and medical care to the patients in need of such services.
Engr Abba Kabir expressed happiness as the initiative will augument the efforts of the state government of giving the health sector the deserved 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 21million People. We have the most vulnerable people, downtrodden masses that does not have any means of taking care of their health needs” said the Governor.
“We will stick to our campaign promises of building general hospitals across the 44 local governments and Primary health care centres across the state and the re-introduce mobile clinics to cater for the people in the rural areas who are in need of medical attention free of charge.”
The head of the medical team from Saudi Arabia, Dr Utman Al-uthman Saad said the medical team comprised of 20 Cardiac surgeons who will perform the surgery and pledged to do their best to achieve the set goals.
Earlier in his speech the Chief Medical director (CMD) of Aminu Kano Teaching hospital, Professor Abdulrahman Abba Sheshe said the intervention is timely as there is an increase of heart diseases related cases especially in Northern Nigeria due to the prevalence of hypertension cases.
The CMD, expressed optimism that Engineer Abba Kabir Yusuf’s govermmt will formulate policies that will re-invigorate the health sector and reduce medical tourism in the search for specialized treatment.
