Date: 2018-01-16

The Kwara State-owned Harmony Diagnostic Centre (HADC) is poised to be centre of excellence in the Northcentral in the next two years.

Established in 2013, the centre began operations in 2014 and since then it has positioned itself as one of the leading diagnostic centres in Kwara, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Oyo Kogi, Benue and Niger states.

HADC's mission statement is 'to ensure the consistent provision of comprehensive diagnostic and allied healthcare services. To remain a centre of excellence for high quality services for all'.

Acting Managing Director Dr Bunmi Jetawo-Winters, a trained pharmacist said despite the centre's sophistication in terms of equipment and personnel, Nigeria still lags behind in that respect.

She added that "we do not have enough diagnostic centres in Nigeria. We also have few laboratories that carry out expansive tests in the country, considering Nigeria's population. That is not too good."

Dr Jetawo-Winters, who doubles as the Director General, Kwara State Hospitals Management Bureau, said that the centre is not out to carry empirical treatment on patients, but rather it does investigations on patients to get to the proper target of the problems.

She added that HADC is interfacing with teaching hospitals in the state and neighbouring states, saying that "we have highly sophisticated equipment not readily available in other states of the federation."

The diagnostic centre is not without some challenges, she insisted.

"We have multi-faceted problems. Just like in any other part of the country, power supply is one of the problems. No enough biomedical engineers. There is a big gap in that respect. We need a lot more training for available bio-medical engineers. Universities in the country should be encouraged to identify the gap," she said.

Dr Jetawo-Winters said the centre is a work in progress, putting the performance of the four years old centre at 75 percent.

"We are expanding our services so that we can be centre of excellence in the nation," she said, noting that "we want to partner with local and international partners."

The managing director debunked the claim that Senate President Bukola Saraki and Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed have majority shares in the centre.

She said: "The centre is 100 percent and wholly owned by the Kwara state government, but it is being run like a private concern."

She said the centre has imaging and laboratory sections.

The professional pharmacist hailed the Federal Government for setting aside 22 percent for the health sector in the 2018 budget estimate.

"It is a major improvement from the past. It is a step in the right direction,"she added, advocating for between 35 and 40 percent for the sector in subsequent budgets.

She also enjoined government at all levels to encourage and promote the health sector for the wellness and well-being of the society.

She urged Nigerians to ensure balanced diet as according to her "diet is essential to good health. We need to have a balanced of all food groups."

Conducting reporters round the laboratory section, the Laboratory, Manager Chukwukelu Jason said the state government had invested multi-billion naira in the centre.

Mr. Jason encouraged Nigerians to carry out annual general medical check-up of the system, adding that the lab department also comprises of different section.

He revealed that their operation is not posing any danger to the environment, saying that "we incinerate waste products at high temperature before disposing them off."

His counterpart at the imaging department, Dr Oyinloye Gregory, said most of the equipment in his section are unique and rarely in use in many parts of the country.