UCTH to Perform First Open Heart Surgery in April

The University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) has announced that it will conduct its first Open Heart Surgery (OHS) in the second week of April this year.

The authorities of the hospital said the expected surgical operation would be done by the teaching hospital in partnership with a United State-based team, VOOM Foundation.

Responding to questions in an interview published in the official newsletter of the hospital, which was released at the weekend, the Chief Medical Director of UCTH, Prof. Ikpeme A. Ikpeme, said: “The hospital will join the big leagues of hospitals that have performed hearts surgeries, and it will be a giant stride achieved as far as medical practice is concerned.

“We are planning open heart surgery which will take place between the first two weeks in May 2020. We are working hard towards that with a United Stated-based team called VOOM Foundation. We have taken deliveries of consumables; we are constructing a dedicated theatre suite for the surgeries. Staff and bio-medical engineers are kept on standby. We are also refurbishing our machines which will be used for the surgeries.”

The CMD further revealed that within the past nine months since he assumed office, the management has been “working on the vision and mission of the hospital. Our mantra is to rebuild, reboot and restore human resources, infrastructure and material resources in order to make a better Teaching Hospital that will serve the state and its environs effectively.”

On the area of research as a teaching hospital, Prof. Ikpeme said: “We are trying to develop and build upon the achievements of our institute for tropical research in the hospital, and we are collaborating with the United States Military to research on malaria and drug-resistance in the tropic region. Both clinical and field research is going on.”

He admitted having faced a lot of challenges since he assumed office, but according to him, it’s been both challenging and interesting.

“The sanitation status of the hospital has improved greatly; at least three teams visited the hospital, one of them is the FHI360. During their visit to the hospital, they commended the clean state of the hospital, saying it is the cleanest teaching health institution visited in Nigeria. The accreditation team from the Faculty of Anesthesia as well as the Medical Dental Council of Nigeria also attested to the state of cleanliness which shows progress since assumption of office,” he said.