By continually its upskilling its workforce and upgrading its facilities, the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, is fully poised to help the state and the country as a whole to overcome the medical brain drain challenge. This was declared by the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of LASUTH, Prof. Adetokunbo Fabamwo, during the hospital’s quarterly media parley in Lagos to intimate the citizens on its medical infrastructure projects and unique healthcare services available to the public.
While enthusing that the teaching hospital has addressed its brain drain crisis, the CMD noted that the institution, recognising that the brain drain crisis affects nurses and junior doctors more than other categories of healthcare workers, has worked around the challenge and bridged the gap through a well-designed Exit Replacement Strategy that has made it possible for the recruitment of 165 staff. With the exit replacement strategy, the hospital has been able to rise above the challenge and maintaining its quality and effective healthcare services, he boasted.
“Usually, there are two categories of staff that relocate abroad. The nurses form the larger percentage of people, who emigrate, followed by junior doctors. As soon as our staff leave, we replace them immediately to ensure there is no gap in healthcare delivery, especially as we are known for setting high standards with the upgrade of our state-of-the-art facilities for optimum care,” he said.
Another plank LASUTH has used to address its medical brain drain crisis is in the area of infrastructure renewal, facility upgrade and provision of unique healthcare services available to the public. According to Fabamwo, the apex hospital has witnessed an impressive medical infrastructural transformation in recent years, especially years, especially several modern medical infrastructural projects that d recently completed and inaugurated by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu. “The new multipurpose medical building, which comprises four medical schools in the areas of anaesthesia technology, echocardiograph, orthopaedic cast technology and postgraduate nursing, also houses the Family Medicine Department, Dietetics Department, Managed Care Unit, Immunisation Clinic, Private Wards, Super Executive Private Wards, 20-bed Intensive Care Unit, a spa and a gym, amongst others,” he said.
He said the building adds to existing facilities to accommodate the overwhelming population seeking healthcare. Fabamwo pointed out that upgrade of diagnostic and therapeutic facilities, as well as the bronchoscopy suite, cardiac catheterisation laboratory and endoscopic suite, whose services are economically affordable, would serve patients better across Lagos. He said the hospital was looking forward to completing the paediatric sickle cell centre that would accommodate specialists taking care of children with sickle cell disorder and a radiotherapy unit to cater for cancer patients. The CMD sought public-private partnership to improve healthcare in the state, adding that no government globally could adequately fund healthcare. He appealed to Nigerians to embrace health insurance schemes to lessen bills.
“Citizens should embrace the healthcare insurance module so that their out-of-pocket expenses would be significantly reduced, as they don’t have to beg people to offset their medical bills. People continue to come here because they have the care they need, but of the care we give, part of it is supplied by vendors and contractors, who we have to pay. The consumables are paid for, so using it to treat a patient, who ends up not paying for it, we may end up as a hospital that cannot provide care and we don’t want that,” Fabamwo said.