The Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Lokoja on Tuesday commissioned the first endoscopic machine in Kogi State.
The endoscopic machine according to FMC Lokoja Medical Director, Dr Olatunde Alabi, would put an end to the medical tourism of patients from Kogi State.
He said the machine would help to examine patients that have a bleeding peptic ulcer, cancer of the stomach, cancer of the throat, cancer of the duodenum, bleeding from the anus and many more.
Alabi said when a patient is diagnosed with the machine, it would enable the medical personnel to put in place the necessary surgical treatment.
Explaining further, the medical director said “endoscopic means a machine that can be used to examine an internal organ. It is the first of its kind in Kogi State. It is state-of-the-art equipment. We have one here for the gastrointestinal system that can examine both the upper organs and many more.
“That is starting from the oesophagus, to the stomach and part of the duodenum and the lower one, the rectum and the colon. It is a flexible endoscopic machine.
“We have two types. This is the modern one. It will help the patients as they don’t have to go far to Ilorin, Abuja or any other part of the country again for treatment. It will reduce the financial burden on the patients and reduce medical tourism internally.
“All the security risk has been eliminated with the availability of this endoscopic machine. We have capable hands that can operate this machine and diagnose this condition that I had earlier mentioned, and equally, treat them.”
Alabi said the Federal Government has continued to provide medical equipment for FMC Lokoja stressing that the present management is making effort to furnish the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), provide ventilators and monitors for the hospital just as the health institution also benefited from the molecular laboratory provided by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government.
“Our people in Kogi State will no longer go to other parts of the state for treatment, as every medical equipment will be available in FMC for use. We will soon have a machine that we can use to investigate the heart and this will help to enhance the treatment of patients in Kogi State,” he added.
Earlier, the Head of Clinical Services, FMC Lokoja, Dr Bernard Ododo, lauded the present hospital management for their transformation effort in changing the face of the health institution.
Dr Ododo said this is the first time in the history of FMC Lokoja that the hospital will receive such a remarkable face-lift, assuring that with the new endoscopic machine, patients would get the best of medical services from the hospital.
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