UCTH Introduces Advanced Patient Care

The University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) has introduced advanced endoscopic procedures, upscaling the range of clinic services and patient care. Eight patients who were supposed to travel outside the country to get medical attention at the UCTH facility were treated.

Chief Medical Director of UCTH, Professor Ikpeme Ikpeme, disclosed this yesterday in Càlabar during an interview with journalists.

He stressed that apart from Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, University Teaching Hospital Càlabar UCTH is the second government-owned facility in the country to introduce advanced endoscopic procedures.

Ikpeme said that UCTH collaborates with the Massachusetts General Hospital to advance endoscopic practice in Cross River State and Nigeria.

“We (UCTH) have had a basic endoscopy programme ongoing for years, but we thought it was time to upscale it and introduce advanced endoscopy.

“We collaborated with the Massachusetts General Hospital to advance endoscopic practice in our locality.

So our collaboration is with Massachusetts General Hospital with a lot of support from OAU Teaching Hospital,” the CMD emphasised.

The UCTH CMD averred the details of the partnership and commitment of the hospital to provide affordable healthcare, drive medical tourism and achieve access to quality healthcare services for people.

“It involved the introduction of Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and Endoscopic Ultrasound (EUS).

“The advantage of this is that it would improve diagnosis of hepatopancreatic biliary diseases, and when that happens, the chances for better treatment are also improved,” Ikpeme stated.

He further explained, “Before this time, if somebody had pancreatic cancer and needed to do a biopsy, we would need to give them a big incision in the abdomen to go see the pancreas and then do the biopsy.

But with what we have now, we introduce a camera mounted on a fibre optic cable. Looking at the video screen, we get to the specific area, do the biopsy needed, administer the treatment, and the person is fine.”

Ikpeme stressed that the hospital had trained its staff in the United States of America and India and procured the equipment for the advanced endoscopic procedure, stressing, “We have also completed a one-week training programme for our staff here in Calabar with the support of our partners.”

“We have successfully treated eight patients free of charge, who were supposed to travel outside Nigeria for the same treatment.”