Not less than 2,000 residents in Edo State will benefit from free renal tests to tackle the increase of renal health challenges, courtesy of the state government.

The Chief Medical Director of Edo Specialist Hospital, Professor Ileogben Sunday-Adeoye, stated this on Tuesday when he disclosed that a one week programme tagged ‘Edo Health Impact’ would begin on Wednesday.

He said the event, which would have Governor Godwin Obaseki as the special guest, was meant to build capacity, improve patients’ care as well as raise community awareness and improve community health.

The CMD said, “At the event, we will also have experts come and talk to us about colon cancer and the reason to treat it early.

“Cancer of the colon was thought to be a problem of the Caucasians because of their diets but now we are beginning to have it among our people both the young and aged.

“There is a looming crisis of renal disease in the state but the hospital has made provision subject to the governor’s pronouncement that 2000 people can come to ESH and do a test to be able to have an idea of the state of their renal health, because kidney disease is such that if you detect it early and you listen to the instructions of your caregivers, it will not deteriorate.”

Sunday-Adeoye said the hospital was also adopting telemedicine to check medical tourism, noting that consultants who are in the Diaspora have indicated interest to partner with ESH with highly subsidised services to the people in the highly revered hospital that was benefitting from Public Private Partnership initiative of the state government.

Also speaking, the Managing Partner, CIUC, Charity Babatunde, said the state government was already mulling extending the PPP initiative to government hospitals in the state.

She said, “I am aware the government is also considering other public hospitals in the state to benefit from the PPP but the pilot is ESH to see how it can work, to see whether it achieves its objectives and then extend it to other hospitals.”