How NEDC collaborates Prof Ahidjo to construct Burns Centre at UMTH

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Mohammed Kaka Misau

There is no any doubt that the management of University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital under its Chief Medical Director, Professor Ahmed Ahidjo has carried out so many positive reforms towards improving health care service delivery, professionalism as well as welfare packages for the staff.

Recently, the UMTH has been the subject of a great deal of positive commentary in the area of medical facilities, services as well as enhancing the delivery of healthcare to the people of Borno state and Nigeria as a whole.

Reports indicated that the leadership and management of the UMTH under the Chief Medical Director (CMD), Professor Ahmed Ahidjo has transformed the hospital to the next level of international standard in line with her objectives.

They include the provision of medical facilities, capital projects, staff welfare, and labor relations.

Of the entire country, Yola and Maiduguri are the only two states in the northeast to have burns center. North East Development Commission (NEDC) constructed the UMTH Burns Center as part of its duties. The Burns Treatment Center has been in operation since it was commissioned in April 2022.

According to newsng.com, the feat became a reality following the story that the health industry has been one of Borno’s worst-hit industries throughout the more than 13-year Boko Haram conflict. The terrorists believed that by attacking government buildings, the people of the state and the administration would be forced to face the brunt of their campaign. As a result, health centers in Borno state and northeast Nigeria became targets.

In Borno state and in parts of the local government areas, hospitals and health centres were damaged, vandalized, or set on fire.

The few health centers and facilities that were serving the populace became overburdened as a result of the attacks in the majority of local government districts, which prompted inhabitants to migrate to Maiduguri, the capital city of Borno State. This led to difficulties in the health sector.

Newsng.com also reports that because of the overcrowding in the different internally displaced persons camps, which housed people who had been uprooted by the insurgency, infections were more likely to spread there.

It however said, “the difficulties in the health sector were reduced with the arrival of the North East Development Commission (NEDC) and its interventions in the various health centers in Maiduguri and environs, particularly the partnership with the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH), which gave birth to the much talk about Burns Centre”.

The opening of the Burns Center was a much-welcomed development and a milestone that has maintained the UMTH’s prominence. It is vital to construct this Center because of the unique environment in Borno state, the unrest that engulfed the state during the height of the insurgency, when killings and destructions resulted in fatalities, injuries, and fires.

The report said, as a result, burn patients lack a specialized unit or center in hospitals in the Northeast to care for them since at the height of the insurrection there was no hope in sight for those suffering from burns. Only the accomplishments noted during Ahidjo’s led medical administration may reveal the concept of the management team to cooperate for growth with the Northeast Commission.

One of the centers that some guests and hospital partners are unaware of is the UMTH Burns Center.

“Except for the Kidney Center, Cancer Center, and Trauma Center, which I am all aware of, I have never heard of the Burns Center. But not for Burns Center”, said a hospital visitor.

The Center’s head, Professor Chubado Tahir, a burns specialist and consultant, told NEWSng that it focuses on various burns treatments.

“Burns may be caused by fire, heat, or radiation, Professor Tahir said.

“All of these are taken care of and treated in this Center. For the treatment and care of burns, we have all the required tools and supplies. My crew is skilled and trained in treating burns”. Added Prof. Chubado.

He said that as burns are a delicate harm to the body in part or whole, the burns center is comparable to an intensive care unit.

“Burns come in two varieties: small burns and serious burns. Additional classifications include first-, second-, and third-degree burns”. He clarified.

When NEWSng took a tour of the Center, nurse Aisha Umar Ngohi, a Metron, was there. Metron Ngohi stated that the hospital’s Burns Center is a good addition since “it has significantly lowered the rate of deaths from burn injuries.”

“You will receive the best treatment and attention at our infection-free facility. Additionally, it functions as an intensive care unit where recovery is handled with great care. Our wards are strictly reserved for patients exclusively. The open wards you often find in hospitals are not like this one”, she said.

Burns have long been an ailment that needed skilled treatment, while others required surgical grafts. The Burns Center “came at the right time for the people of Borno state, considering the nature of our present environment where you find people with severe burns injuries as a result of the happenings in the northeast,” Dr. Kefas Mbaya, a consultant of Plastic and Burns Surgery informed Newsng.

“In this sense, the Center has been achieving its main goals of providing patients with burn treatments and procedures. The Center has also advanced burn research and understanding through training medical students and researchers in the field”, he said.

According to him, the inability of some patients to pay for their medical costs is one of the difficulties this center has to deal with.

Adding that, “the majority of our patients struggle to pay for their therapies. Treatments, care, and medicines for burns are necessary. Burn treatment medications are pricey. Therefore, we must account for our costs for consumables like oxygen, bandages, and cotton, among others”. He said.

Another difficulty that newsng was forced to comprehend was the requirement for ventilation holes to be guarded from insects that can injure patients in wards.

“The Burns Center is one of several medical centers housed at the UMTH”, newsng observed in its report..