Professor Ahidjo Is Simply Focus and Determine Personality – HoD Radiology, Dr. Mohammed Sani Ahmadu

Professor Ahidjo Is Simply Focus and Determine Personality – HoD Radiology, Dr. Mohammed Sani Ahmadu

A revolution is currently ongoing in the department of Radiology at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH). With new equipment and a pleasant working environment, it is no longer news that the CMD Professor Ahmed Ahidjo is described as a turnaround machine by some of his colleagues in the medical profession. NEWSng speaks with the HoD Radiology Department, Dr. Mohammed Sani Ahmadu and this is what he said. Excerpt by James Bwala.

Q: Tell us about yourself?

A: My name is Dr. Mohammed Sani Ahmadu. I am a consultant Radiologist and Also an Associate Professor of Radiology. I am the head of the Department of Radiology, University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital. I head this department for about 8 years now and I have witnessed a lot of changes in the department over the years now.

Q: You have been in the HOD Radiology Department in the last 8 years. How can you relate the experience with the current happening in the hospital particularly with your department?

A: A lot of changes like I said. Professor Ahmed Ahidjo has been my teacher and mentor. I was the head of the department of Radiology when Professor Ahidjo came in as the CMD in 2018, precisely in September, 2018. I have been the head of the radiology department under Professor Abdulraham Tahir, who is also a teacher and a mentor. He is also a radiologist, who has worked tirelessly to bring the image of the hospital in terms of structures and quality services as well as research and teaching.

Q: After Professor Tahir, comes Professor Ahmed Ahidjo who is also your teacher and a mentor. We want to know what you have learnt under him since taking over the administration of the UMTH.

A: Thank you very much. I learnt a lot under Professor Ahmed Ahidjo. However, on this occasion I can tell one thing I learnt and I always referred to is his dedication to duty and goal pursuit. If Professor Ahidjo set aside a goal he pursues it to its conclusion. This is one particular thing I learnt from him as a teacher, as a manager and as an administrator. He never gives a space until that is achieved.

Q: Sir, Radiology Department under you. What are the changes?

A: Well, as you can see. Work is ongoing. There are so many changes from the time I came in and now. Like we used to have the compliments of all the imaging modalities, like MRI, CT scan, Ultrasound and what have you. Under Professor Ahidjo, he was able to upgrade some of these machines and equipment. We used to have a Philips 16 slice CT Machine scanner. Now we have 128 state of the art Siemens computer thermography. That is the CT scanner, from 16 slices to 128 and that is nearly ten times the size of the old one. An arrangement has been made to procure a new MRI Machine which is 1.5 Tesla. The existing one is 0.2 tesla. So, he is going to acquire a new 1.5 Tesla. We have a fluoroscopy machine that is brand new and it has been installed. The CT machine like I said has also been installed. We have some ultra sound machines that were bought under his administration and we also have a new mammography machine. The department is also being extended upward and all the doctors, we are going upstairs. The ground floor will now be for equipment only. Like I said all doctors and Technicians, we are all moving upstairs with befitting offices and common rooms for resident doctors and other healthcare workers in this department.  

Q: So, with all these new facilities on ground. Would you say that it has given the department all the needful for taking adequate services as would be expected for medical help seekers?

A: Of course, yes it has and he is on it for more! Like I said, we used to have a 16 slice CT and now we have 128 CT. We will go round for you to see them. So you can imagine now we have a camera that is more powerful and can catch an image kilometers away. Also in terms of patient services, there are a lot of improvements in numbers with the current upgrade in the hospital and in this department. With the new machines we have been able to improve on patients’ services much more than we used to have. Also you know you cannot separate a teaching hospital from teaching and research. In this regard we have also improved very well in impacting our teaming students and getting headway in research areas. Under Professor Ahidjo, we were able to have more consultants and more residents. We used to have about 10 to 15 interns radiologists who came to do their one year internship but now we have about 40 interns who are working and he has been able to also employ Radiographers as well as resident doctors and that will translate into more patient care.

Q: As it stands from what we find out. The revenue of the hospital only hits between 40 and 45 million naira a month. Electricity to power the hospital is hitting 60 million naira or more in a month. Can you reconcile this with how the CMD was able to measure the purchase of all these expensive machines for the care of patients and improvement of the standard of the UMTH?

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A: Like I said, Professor Ahidjo is a goal getter when it comes to determination to get things done. Virtually operating a hospital from zero point in terms of internally generated revenue to making huge sacrifices, Professor Ahidjo can knock at your door anytime when it comes to seeking assistance for the hospital. When he set out to upgrade the UMTH, he set out to reach Philanthropists in the community. He reached out to governments and organisations and he would stop at no junction until the need is met. If he had stayed in the office to wait for the federal government to intervene, we may not have much on ground and even if we may have some appreciable feelings, definitely it would not have been as much as we have now. So, he has gone to ask and to beg from sons of the soil who are well to do and have the connection to make things happen. The result is what is being witnessed in the hospital today. I do not know whether you have seen the Trauma Centre, The Child Institute and the Cancer Centre (which is one of a kind) and the Struck Centre among a few. Indeed, they are well visible. So, he is somebody with determination to make achievements and he knows the buttons to press.

Q: So many achievements as you mentioned. How does that replicate here in the Radiology department?

A: The new machines that have been acquired, the new employment, the new physical structures. We used to have only this floor but now we have another floor upstairs dedicated for doctors. These have translated positively in the department of radiology.

Q: How do you feel heading a department like this with so much improvement?

A: I feel very fulfilled. Fulfillment in the sense that as a professional when you don’t have the right equipment and environment to work the desire to put in your best will not be there. So, I am fulfilled with all these desires met under my department.

Q: Finally sir, radiology as medical services. What is radiology all about?

A: Well, when a patient comes to the hospital, he first mentions to the physician that this is his condition. Now he will be asked questions and along the way he will be investigated or sent to be investigated. Radiology is a field of medicine that deals with imaging with machines that are capable of seeing through the human body. For example if you want to see the human brain, it is through radiology that you can be able to see the human brain and determine what the condition in the human brain is using the machine and you can be able to diagnose diseases and to say that this is what is wrong with the patient. Let’s say a patient comes to the hospital with chest problems because of a cough. You cannot normally see through the lungs but when you x-ray the patient, you will be able to determine the status of the patient. If you want to image a woman whether she is pregnant or not, you use the ultra-scan to do that. Now ultra-scan has the ability to image the human body and the uterus containing the fetus inside. So, this is where radiology comes in. It investigates as well as treats because there is an aspect of radiology which is called interventional radiology where Professor Ahmed Ahidjo is a specialist in that aspect of radiology. So, you can treat a block artery. Now fat can block an artery and radiology in its interventional aspect can now go into the blocked vessels and open it up. A woman coming with fibroid now can go in and block those arteries that are supplying the fibroid and it will shrink. So, radiology is both diagnostic as well as interventional.

Professor Ahidjo Is Simply Focus and Determine Personality – HoD Radiology, Dr. Mohammed Sani Ahmadu