Yobe government spends N360 million a year on free dialysis program

Yobe State spends about N360 million each year to provide free dialysis at its university teaching hospital in Damaturu, the hospital’s chief medical director, Baba Goni, said.

The program has operated since 2017 and delivers between 600 and 700 free haemodialysis sessions each month. Goni said the monthly cost is about N30 million. A patient may require two or three sessions a week, so the hospital measures the program by sessions rather than by the number of patients.

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In dialysis, you don’t count the number of patients because one patient can have two or three sessions in a week.

The state has signed a memorandum of understanding with a company that supplies dialysis consumables. The hospital also performs free fistula surgeries, which provide vascular access for people with chronic kidney disease. Vascular surgeons are brought in for the procedures, while the hospital pays their fees and buys the necessary materials.

A water-treatment plant and five additional dialysis machines have recently been procured, taking the number of functional machines at the Damaturu facility to 11. Plans are also advanced for a second dialysis center at Specialists’ Hospital in Gashua. The center is included in the 2026 budget and is intended to reduce the need for residents to travel to Damaturu.

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Very soon, people will start enjoying these services over there, so that they don’t have to bear the inconvenience and transportation cost of coming to Damaturu for the treatment.

Goni said he and the health commissioner had traveled to Ghana to negotiate with partners for more machines and training for nurses and medical engineers. He appealed for patience, saying government projects require time to plan and implement.

A preliminary report from kidney-disease research conducted in Gashua in 2025 will soon be submitted to Governor Mai Mala Buni. Goni said officials would scrutinize it carefully before establishing causality, warning that conclusions based on unclear findings could have economic consequences.

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I am using this medium to appeal to our people for their understanding of the complex nature of planning and implementation of government projects, which usually take some time.