The management of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) on Tuesday said it has subsidised surgeries and procedures at a discount rate of 50 percent for patients to do minimal invasive surgery.
Darlington Obaseki, chief medical director, UBTH, who disclosed this at the flag-off of the initiative in Benin City, said it was part of activities lined up to mark the hospital’s 50th founder day slated for May, 2023.
Obaseki listed some of the surgical procedures to include laparascopy, colonoscopy, lithotripsy, endoscopic sinus surgeries, optical coherence tomography (OCT) among others.
The chief medical director, however, decried the growing demands of medical care by Nigerians in hospitals located in overseas, pointing out that his management is prepared to place the hospital in a vantage position for persons seeking treatment.
“Every month, Nigerians seek medical care outside Nigeria and majority of them go to Indian. The question is why do they go out to seek for care? Some of the things they go out for are the things we are doing here.
“We started since the beginning of this month. We have 115 patients for surgeries, anybody screened and certified free to undergo surgery would benefit from the programme,” Obaseki said.
Peter Agbonifo, coordinator for the UBTH minimal access subsidised surgeries, said the UBTH management and various surgical specialties carefully selected several procedures and decided to subsidised for the benefit of the people.
One of the beneficiaries simply identified as Lucky, said he received treatment from the subsidised surgery after he was unable to access healthcare services at other hospitals due to the huge cost.
