Visit to Minister for Health & Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Ali Pate

We were honoured to welcome the Coordinating Minister for Health & Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Ali Pate, to our hospital for a visit yesterday morning, before the Women in Healthcare Network (WIHCN) launch. We were also very pleased to welcome Dr Uju Anwukah, Senior Special Adviser to the Vice President, H.E Kashim Shettima, on Health.

During the tour of the hospital, Professor Pate had a demonstration of our radiotherapy machine, the Varian True Beam linac, the best available in the world today, and one of only five in Africa.

Clearly a passionate clinician still, Professor Pate was keen to engage with the clinical team during our multidisciplinary ward round and remarked with interest on our single-centre data on the 4,000 patients we have seen since becoming operational 3 years ago.

Wonderful to have the opportunity to exhibit to the Minister the pathways that we follow to provide comprehensive care for our cancer patients, from diagnosis through all aspects of treatment, including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, as well as counselling and psychosocial support – a true “one-stop” centre negating the need for Nigerian patients to go abroad for treatment.