Ilorin — In a move aimed at reducing frequent overseas travelling of people with various kinds of ailments in Nigeria, Kwara State government has commenced the construction of a N2.2 billion ultra-modern Diagnostic Centre in Ilorin.

The project, which is being undertaking as a partnership basis between the state government and a foreign firm, MedeQuip Medical Services, United States of America (USA) would be equipped with modern equipment that would be used to diagnose any persons with various kinds of sickness.

Speaking with newsmen on the project in Ilorin, the state Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Ladi Hassan, said the project would be completed within six months in order to ensure the quick usage of the facilities.

According to him, "the decision of the government to embark on such move is to bring health care delivery to the people of the state at a cheaper cost."

He said the development would assist those traveling outside the country for any medical check-up to have access to the facilities at the diagnostic center in the state.

According to him, "the problem of many people that has led to several untimely deaths would be reduced as the facilities there would be used to determine the early discovery of the disease that might have been affecting the people and thereby addressing its treatment."

Hassan said the centre will be able to diagnose the accurate nature of a particular ailment so as to know how best to treat and even as fast as possible.

He added that the foreign partner, MedeQuip Medical Services, a renown medical organisation based in United States of America has been carefully chosen to provide manpower services for the center for four years because of the sophistication of the equipments and to also provide quality services to the people.

The commissioner stressed that within the four years of agreement, Kwaran medical experts who will also work at the center are expected to have understudied the foreign experts to know the operations of the equipments after the terms of agreement might have expired and the experts return to their base.

Hassan, who hinted that the governor, a doctor by background has made up his mind to put the health structures of the state on a sound footing has commenced tour of all the hospitals across the state to know their state of infrastructural facilities so as to put them in place before the present administration terminates

He maintained that, Based on the directive of his Excellency, already, I have started the tour of all the medical centers across the state, I am aware that some centers don't have good beddings based on the record available, but by the time I finished the tour I should be able to know exactly the state of our hospitals and the facilities they lack, so as to replace them because that is the whole essence of the tour.

He, therefore, assured the indigenes that government would continue to be up and doling in order to boost the medical care of the Kwarans in order to accelerate the socio economic development of the people in the state.