CSR: Urological surgeons commend Mansard over funding

Chuks Udo Okonta

 

The Pan-African Urological Surgeons Association's Initiative for Urological Training in Africa (PIUTA), University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan centre has commended Mansard Insurance plc for its support to the centre by means of its annual funding of the Postgraduate Training Fellowships in general urology.

Speaking recently on the centre’s achievement in 2014, the Director of the centre, Professor E. Oluwabunmi Olapade-Olaopa, disclosed that Mansard’s support for the centre has been invaluable towards achieving the centre’s accomplishments. “Mansard’s support has been invaluable to what we have been able to achieve during the year.”

Olapade-Olaopa who listed some of the landmark achievements disclosed that through Mansard’s support, doctors from the Urology Division, Department of Surgery, University College Hospital, were able to attend the recently concluded overseas Training and Conference Fellowship of the Bristol Urology Urodynamic Course in the United Kingdom and the 34^th Congress of the Societe Internationale d’Urology held in Glasgow-Scotland.

During the conference, the doctors presented the patented University of Ibadan/University College Hospital Bladder Manikin® - a locally designed teaching aid for suprapubic catheterization in low resource countries. The Manikin was awarded the First Prize for the Best Affordable Technology.

Speaking further, Professor Olapade-Olaopa, also said that through the support of Mansard, PIUTA was able to clear and insure the state-of-the-art endoscopy equipment donated by Karl Storz GMBH (a German company) for advanced urological training fellowships at the University of Ibadan and the University College Hospital.

He also disclosed that the centre was able to produce Patient Information Leaflets (PIL) in indigenous Nigerian languages. A survey of patients on usefulness of the PIL revealed that the leaflets were very useful as they understood the information provided on the diseases and their treatment. Part of the fund from Mansard also provided support for the development of a Yoruba language Human and Veterinary Medical Dictionary.

Professor Olapade-Olaopa while calling on other corporate organizations to emulate Mansard’s example, said that the annual funding of the centre by Mansard is a worthy initiative. “Corporate organisations in the country should emulate Mansard in supporting health professionals’ education and healthcare delivery”. Adding that “there is a lot we can achieve if corporate organisations collaborate with professionals in the health sector especially in providing financial support for initiatives such as Mansard has been doing through its support for the center.”