Vice President Kashim Shettima commissioned a 400-bed teaching hospital in Maiduguri on Friday, adding specialist care and medical training capacity in northeastern Nigeria, BusinessDay reported.
The Kashim Ibrahim University Teaching Hospital has 13 specialist departments, according to the newspaper. Its account lists emergency services, pediatric care, internal medicine, surgery, diagnostics and physiotherapy among the fields covered.
The hospital’s diagnostic equipment includes a 1.5-tesla MRI scanner and a 160-slice CT scanner. BusinessDay also listed three standard X-ray machines and two mobile X-ray units, plus three 4D ultrasound systems, fluoroscopy for live imaging and digital mammography equipment.
The site brings together clinical services and training facilities: it has a medical college and student hostel. A staff housing estate with 200 units and an oxygen plant complex are also part of the development, the report said.
BusinessDay said the investment is intended to reduce medical tourism by making diagnostic and specialist services more accessible to Borno residents and people from neighboring communities. The newspaper also identified foreign residents across Lake Chad as people the facility is intended to serve.
BusinessDay said training at the facility is expected to build the supply of doctors, nurses and allied health workers in Borno State and across the North East. BusinessDay described that training role as part of an effort to address health care staffing shortages in the region.
BusinessDay reported Shettima also commissioned Yerwa Practice Mega Primary School, a Zulum administration project, and a second mega primary school under the Kashim Shettima Free Education Programme. The programme provides free schooling to orphans and vulnerable children, according to the report. Shettima praised Governor Babagana Umara Zulum’s focus on health care and education.
