Tijjani Usman MuhammadThe Federal Government has reduced the cost of kidney dialysis from ₦50,000 to ₦12,000 per session, a 76 to 80 per cent subsidy across some selected tertiary hospitals.
This initiative aims to make dialysis more affordable for thousands of Nigerians battling kidney-related diseases.
The participating hospitals are: Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Ebute-Metta, Lagos, Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Jabi, Abuja and the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.
They also include: University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), Calabar as well as the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH), Bauchi.
This initiative is part of President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, aiming to ensure Nigerians have access to affordable healthcare.
In Kano State, Tinubu’s 80 per cent dialysis subsidy has led to a significant increase in patient attendance at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH), Kano.
The intervention, under the Renewed Hope Agenda, has slashed the cost of dialysis from between N50,000 and N60,000 per session to N12,000, providing relief to indigent kidney patients.
Speaking on the development, the Deputy Director of Nursing Services at AKTH, Mr Tijjani Rahim, who is also the Head of the Dialysis Unit, said the unit now attends to between 22 and 25 patients daily.
He stated that the spike in the number of patients followed the implementation of the Federal Government’s subsidy programme, making AKTH one of the first hospitals to benefit from the scheme.
During a visit to the AKTH Dialysis Centre, some patients expressed gratitude for the intervention, describing it as life-saving.
A patient, Malam Sani Musa, recalled paying between N54,000 and N60,000 per dialysis session before the subsidy.
