By; NICHOLAS DEKERA, Kaduna
Patients currently receiving Medical attention at the National Eye Centre Kaduna, have passed vote of confidence on the services of centre, while calling for establishment of more of such across the country.
Patients from the Out Patients Department (OPD) who spoke to newsmen, said that they have passed a vote of confidence on the management and staff of the centre.
Group leader of some of the interviewed patients, Ibrahim Idris whose younger brother, Mohammed Idris was brought to the centre for the first time, said, “My family and I have heard a lot about the National Eye Centre, people said you must know a staff here before your case can be treated quickly, some said I will spend the whole day here without any medical attention, but I am amazed that the whole treatment is moving smoothly.
“I came here as early as 6:30am and met about 42 people ahead of me, but by 7:53, it got to my turn and I am happy with the level of professionalism exhibited by the staff. We are going to the laboratory now, hopefully it will move fast, like our politicians would say, we are also passing a vote of confidence on the National Eye Centre.”
Another patient in the Eye Center’s OPD who spoke, was Mr. Ezema Christian, who is a first timer residing in Television, also hailed the centre for their services at affordable rates.
Ezema said, ” I got here around 6am and joined the queue, I was number 33, they started attending to me about 7:40am. The services are second to none so far in Kaduna and other few places I have been to.
“My fears at the beginning was the fees, because last week I was in one hospital within Kaduna town and consultation fee alone was 10,000 plus card and others, the bill was 18,000 Naira, yet I didn’t get results, but here in Eye Centre, I paid 4,000 Naira for everything here in PCC. I think this is very okay”.
Speaking at Glaucoma and Cataract Unit, Aminu Bello, Salisu A. Jonah Abu and Umar Tijani commended the Centre for maintaining moderate costs of operation for the common Nigerians to afford.
He however, called on the Eye Centre to open up units in other states and geo political zones to reduce the stress of patients of traveling from distant places to Kaduna for healthcare.
At the clinic, Joshua Joram and Amina Abubakar also expressed satisfaction on the treatment and cost of consultation.
They however, said that the crowd is much, so patients need to leave home early.
“With the level of insecurity in the country, it is risky coming out around 4:30am or 5am to this place to pick a good number. If possible, some branches should be opened within the town and in states like Adamawa and Benue or better still, the centre should employ more hands. There are lots of medical personnel here, but since this is the only good and affordable Eye Care institution in Northern Nigeria, more people are trooping here.” Joram stressed.
Investigations revealed that the eye centre is preferred by most patients due to effective service delivery, short waiting time and low cost of consultation and drugs.
Hospitals, both public and private in Nigeria have increased cost of consultation to almost 300 per cent, whereas, the Eye Centre Kaduna went up with just 33 per cent increase, irrespective of the cost of diesel and other consumables.
