Re-accreditation Panel from WACS visits UMTH’s Radiology Department, commends CMD Ahidjo.

By Mohammed Kaka

The re-accreditation panel from the Faculty of Radiology at the West African College of Surgeons visited the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) over the week.

Speaking during the official visit, the Chairman of the Panel, Prof. A. Adeyekun, commended the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the hospital, Professor Ahmed Ahidjo, for paying immense attention to training of doctors and other staff of the hospital.

Prof. Adeyekun said that the purpose of the re-accreditation visit was to confirm the hospital’s adherence to the existing WACS rules on the training of doctors in thr faculty of Radiology.

“We are here to confirm to the college that things are still being done the way they should be done here,”  he said.

According to Prof. Adeyekun, the Re-accreditation Panel has Professor Sulaiman Sa’idu of Usman Dan-Fodio Teaching Hospital Sokoto, Senior Consultant Radiologist at the National Hospital Abuja, and Dr. Bolanle Aisha Akintobe as members.

“As I said, we are here for the re-accreditation of the Department of Radiology at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital. I knew that the exercise was one of the assignments that would be easy for us because this is not the first accreditation visit to the department.”

“However, we must do some assessment; we must go round to see the personnel and look at the equipment, among many other things,”  he said.

The Re-accreditation Panel Chairman, Prof. Adeyekun, who expressed confidence in the leadership style and achievements of the Chief Medical Director of the University of Mèaiduguri Teaching Hospital, further assured that the Panel would will be objective and just.

Earlier speaking, the Chief Medical Director of, the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, Professor Ahidjo, described UMTH as the largest hospital in the country, with 1,305 beds spread across 37 departments and about 9 centers.

He recalled that the hospital evolved as a University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital from the Specialist Hospital Maiduguri meant for northeastern Nigeria by the northeastern government, which was conceived in the early 1970s.

Professor Ahidjo said, under the conception, that referrals from the Northeast have to go to Ahmadu Bello University Zaria as the closest referral center.

“Then, our Governor Musa Usman went for a check-up in London, where he met Professor Jibrin Aminu, a young doctor there,”  Professor Ahidjo explained.

He further recalled: “And Jibrin Aminu told him that “look, there is a need to have a referral hospital for the Northeast, and he welcomed it as a good idea, promising to use the period of his annual leave and come to Maiduguri to discuss the way forward.”

“On his next annual leave, he came to Maiduguri and met the governor, and they conceived and executed the establishment of the hospital, which is a German model, a replica of the ACN teaching hospital in Germany. Since then, the hospital has been growing to its current stage,”  the CMD informed.

Prof. Ahidjo, who expressed gratitude to the Re-accreditation Panel for the visit, pledged his commitment to the development of the UMTH to cater for the health needs of not only the people of the Northeast but Nigeria as a whole.