A Consultant Cardiologist, Prof. Simon Isezuo, says hypertension is a health disorder affecting one out of every three adults in the rural areas of the country.
Isezuo stated this last week in a lecture titled “Current Approach in the Management of Hypertension in Rural Settings”, presented at the Biennial Integrated Services Seminar organized by Federal Neuro Psychiatric Hospital, Kware in Sokoto State.
Isezuo, a former Head of Department of Medicine, Usmanu Danfodio University Sokoto (UDUS) and former Vice President of Nigerian Hypertension Society, urged practitioners to increase vigilance.
He said it was important for practitioners to follow correct procedure in measurement of blood pressure, sociocultural barriers to BP control and cost-effective treatment and prevention.
According to him, health workers needed to be updated on availability of apparatuses, dynamic situations and challenges of hypertension management.
Dr Adebisi Adebayo, the Head of Clinical Services of the hospital, said the seminar was organized to build the capacity of health workers in the management of hypertension.
Adebayo said the integrated services were incorporated in the hospital services to offer other specialist treatments, apart from psychiatric care.
He said the hospital currently host visiting consultants, who are specialists in different medical fields, working with resident doctors, pharmacists, nurses, and other related health workers to provide efficient services to patients.
“The hospital has world-class equipment such as mobile digital x-ray machine, mobile ultrasound machine, digitalized medical and diagnostic records system, occupational therapy equipment, and modern laboratory tools,” Adebayo added.
In his address, the hospital’s Medical Director, Prof. Shehu Sale, said the federal government had funded several projects in the hospital to enhance services to the public.
Sale said that the projects included an intensive care unit, molecular laboratory, isolation center, family health clinic, accident, and emergency unit, and women and children drug-dependent treatment center.
The medical director added that the total bed space and staff strength of the hospital had been increased, while all financial transactions and administrative records had been digitilised.
Some of the participants, Dr Mutawakkilu Aliyu, the Medical Director of Kware General Hospital, and Nusaiba Adamu, a Nursing student at UDUTH, described the seminar as relevant and timely, and an opportunity to share experiences and ideas.
