By Kemi Akintokun
Dr Adedamola Dada, the Medical Director of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Ebute Metta, Lagos, says the hospital’s In vitro fertilisation (IVF) centre will crash the price of IVF procedure in the country.
Dada made this known on Thursday at the inauguration of a newly-built Clinical Building in the hospital.
He said the IVF centre, which is part of the new clinical building, will help more Nigerians to have access to IVF.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that IVF is one of the most widely known types of assisted reproductive technology (ART).
It works by using a combination of medicines and surgical procedures to help sperm fertilise an egg, and help the fertilised egg implant in the uterus.
During IVF, an egg is removed from the woman’s ovaries and fertilised with sperm in a laboratory and the fertilised egg, called an embryo, is then returned to the woman’s womb to grow and develop.
Dada said: “We all know about IVF and how expensive it is to access.
“As a public institution and we have a very large volume of patients and quite a large number of patients who actually need the service, we have been able to do our calculations.
“We are very confident that we’re going to be able to crash the cost of IVF in Nigeria once we start working.”
According to Dada, the building also has an ophthalmology centre and 50-bedded male and female wards to increase the number of beds in the hospital as well as a cardiology laboratory.
“The reason why we have created a new ophthalmology centre is because we have realised that there has been a progressive increase in the number of ophthalmology patients.
“The ophthalmology centre has two theatres and four consulting rooms. So we’re going to be able to see more patients and more patients will be able to have their surgeries.
“On the second floor is a 50-bed new admission facility, which is made up of both male and female.
“This will increase the number of beds that we have in our hospitals substantially and a cardiology lab that will enable Nigerians to access specialist care promptly,” he said.
Speaking earlier, the Minister for State for Health and Social welfare, Dr Tunji Alausa, reiterated the commitment of the Federal Government to improving healthcare delivery in the country.
He assured that the President was working to ensure that healthcare delivery to all Nigerians remains one of the top priorities of his administration.
The minister noted that the facility in place at the Federal Medical Centre , Ebute Metta, was an attestation to commitment of the government to make healthcare accessible and affordable to Nigerians. (NAN) (www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Vincent Obi