Inside The $5.5m NSIA- Umuahia Diagnostic Centre

… Facility Biggest In Entire South-East, South-South Region

To say that the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority Umuahia Diagnostic Centre which was commissioned today by the Federal Goverment is a world class facility would be stating the obvious.

The Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority has committed up to $5.5m in the establishment of the ultra modern medical diagnostic centre which is located within the premises of the Federal Medical Centre Umuahia, Abia state.

NSIA’s investment strategy in the healthcare sector is to partner with both public and private institutions to create Centres of Excellence in the healthcare delivery in Nigeria, focussing on diagnostics, tertiary
healthcare targeting non-communicable diseases and medical and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

The Project is expected to serve the South-Eastern region of the country and is a pilot along with the modern diagnostic facility also established by the NSIA at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital.

NSIA funded the construction of the diagnostic centre, including the acquisition and installation of modern laboratory and radiology equipment which will aid the provision of comprehensive diagnostics for the delivery of the highest quality of services.

The Centre will be operated by Statpath, which is a joint venture company between Synlab (formerly Pathcare) and Crestview.

Synlab is a world-renowned provider of pathology services and Crestview is a
renowned provider of radiology services in Nigeria.

The building has been completed and handed over and the equipment delivered with so many unique features.

The facility is equipped with radiology equipment such as a CT scanner, X-ray
machine, mammography machine and two ultrasound machines.

Most of the laboratory equipment purchased for the Centre including equipment for haematology
microbiology, biochemistry and other equipment would aid the provision of routine and specialised blood tests efciently and at an affordable price, to people in Abia State and the South Eastern region of the
country.

It is projected that the laboratory equipment would provide up to 60,000 patient investigations within the rst year of operations.

The Centre has also created jobs, with training and capacity building opportunities for the members of staff.

The full complement of members of staff have been hired, 90 per cent of which are from the local region.

The staff successfully concluded a rigorous 8-week training program in Lagos and have undergone a Standard Operating Procedure Quality training in Umuahia.

This investment will help to provide improved diagnostic service delivery within the South Eastern geopolitical zone, reduce waiting times for high quality diagnostic services at FMCU and improve affordability of high quality tests to patients.

It would also help to provide high quality training opportunities for local professionals.

The NSIA has so far spent $3.5m on the diagnostic laboratory and radiology centre and additionally $1m would be spent on the acquisition and installation of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Also, collection centers are being established across the entire subregion. This would provide 24 hours service and there would be no need to send samples to Lagos or Abuja.

Collection centers are also being opened in Aba, okigwe and owerri for now.

There are 160 slide CT scanner. Before now, the closest is 64 slide CT scan which is located in Enugu.

The NSIA-Umuahia Centre’s MRI is expected to be 1.5 Telsa and it’s of high quality better than what is obtainable in Port Harcourt and Enugu.

The Advanced Diagnostic Centres at Federal Medical Centre Umuahia and Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital shares the same similarity in terms of facility and costs