I’ve heard so much about the top notch services provided by the Federal Medical Centre(FMC), Ebute Meta, Lagos, Nigeria.
Then the other evening I saw an empty glasses’ case in the back pouch of the passenger seat of the cab I was taking home.
I called the attention of the driver to it.
“Oh”, he said, “it’s for my neighbour …”
Then he told the story of his pregnant neighbour whom he had driven with her husband and their relative, who owned the case, to a hospital when the lady started contracting.
They were eventually referred to FMC. According to the driver, this was where he saw a different kind of fascinating public hospital.
“All the staff, doctors and nurses, were on their feet and took charge,” he gushed.
He went on and on talking about how the expectant mother got all the attention she needed,”right from my car.”
Many thanks, Dr Adedamola Dada for instituting that culture of excellence at the Centre.
May your tribe increase” – that was the ever scintillating journalist, Taiwo Obe, Founder, Director at the Journalism Clinic, who in Lagos in August 1983, gave me my first ever newspaper interview when, together with my family, I had to rapidly escape from the political maelstrom then convulsing Ondo state.
Debonair Dr Adedamola Dada is a class act, indeed, one in a million. I write here about a man I have known for like ages, a self effacing, yet confident, stylish, and charming Medical professional who I have seen, at very close quarters, repeatedly turn down an offer of being appointed a state commissioner of Health, even as the governor, trusting his competences, was insistent.
A consultant Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgeon of repute, Dr Dada is an admirably proficient Administrator, leading with panache, and an ability to build and enhance unity of purpose amongst his staff, as I last saw the late, but fondly remembered, Professor Ladipo Akinkugbe do during those our early days at the University College, Ilorin, now University of Ilorin.
This leadership model would end up paying huge dividends for the Federal Medical Centre, Ebute Meta which was, at a time, almost indistinguishable from the old, and rustic, Railway compound, Apapa Road, Ebute Meta.
Confirming the hospital’s exit from that position of near obscurity to one of great renown and respect, H.H. Etim, the Centre’s Director of Administration wrote in his invitation to invitees to the send off event in honour of Dada:”DR Adedamola Dada in a space of a few years has transformed our hospital from a little known centre to the reference centre and standard setting institution in the Nigerian public health space, mentoring over forty institutions including teaching hospitals and providing training and technical support to many public, military and even public hospitals”. “Our facility, he went on, witnessed unprecedented growth with utilization increasing by over 80 per cent and the institution’s asset base growing by over 100 per cent”, adding for emphasis, that “it is therefore necessary for us, as grateful staff of the hospital, to celebrate the man who has led us to achieve these unprecedented growths in the last couple of years”.
As I was quite familiar with many of Dr Dada’s phenomenal developmental strides at the hospital, many of my colleagues on the Board of Management of the Federal Medical Centre, Bida, Niger state, then, would readily recall my references to Dada’s innovations, one of them being when he automated the hospital’s funds collection system and brought in Remita.
Knowing the challenges facing his rustic hospital, with old and massively deteriorating infrastructure, and further compounded by the antics of some corrupt staff who were diverting funds, Dr Dada knew he had to act fast and to do so, he had to be innovative.
In his own words, this was the point at which he keyed into Remita:”We automated our funds collection system and brought in Remita. Every single kobo in the hospital is now collected by Remita”.
The result, he said, was instantaneous
As soon as he resolved the hospital’s financial conundrum, Dr Dada paid off the debts owed contractors and immediately began a process of retrofitting the dilapidated Centre in such a manner that a visiting journalist could describe what he saw as follows:”I observed that access door to each of the wards is automated. The polyvinyl flooring contrasted beautifully with the Led-lighting systems as new air conditioners coo and cool the air. Patients are on hydraulic beds as uniformed cleaners are on standby to clear any mess. There are kitchenettes in every ward and toilets are squeaky clean. Except for the presence of doctors, nurses and matrons, one could mistake the hospital for a hotel”.
But whoever knows Dada would know that much more than aesthetics, he would lay more emphasis on those things that would deliver healing to patients.
And that exactly was what he did.
Read Also: Reps task FG to provide solar power for teaching hospitals, Federal Medical Centres
Before his arrival, the condition of the dialysis centre made it impossible for people to use because the machines were damaged just as the
Intensive Care Unit had only bad and inoperable equipments; so bad consultants no longer referred anyone there.
These were refurbished and brought up to standard such that “a dialysis centre that used to see one or two patients in a week had to extend its service to 24 hours because of demand,” according to the Director.
Another of Dada’s innovations is the use of technology to resolve challenges.
That was what he did when the hospital’s Help and Research group fingered Medical records, especially the delay in locating case notes, as a major challenge to patients.
Under his leadership, the hospital grew in leaps and bounds. These include:
Bed capacity rose from 72 to 450.
A 16-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) was established.
The hospital expanded from one to 20 baby incubators.
now boasts 12 theatre suites, 16 dialysis machines (from zero), and over 500 patient monitors integrated into a central system.
Dada noted that the hospital currently registers 4,000 to 5,000 new patients monthly, a reflection of increasing public trust in its services.
Of Dada’s incredible performance at the hospital, however, he regards his ‘magnum opus’ – if one can borrow that literary term – “as the export of the hospital’s digital best practices to over 60 health institutions across Nigeria.
More than 70 hospitals, nationwide, have adopted the electronic medical records (EMR) system pioneered by FMC Ebute Metta”.
Continuing at a recent Press parley, Dada said:”We are the first public hospital in Nigeria to operate fully paperless clinical services. In five years, we mentored 60 hospitals—tertiary, secondary, and state-owned—on adopting digital systems, all at no cost.
Our aim was to strengthen healthcare delivery across the country.”
As Dada steps out of FMC, Ebute Meta, with all his remarkable, absolutely ground breaking achievements, it is hoped that the Federal Government would waste no time in, once again, engaging the limitless capabilities he has demonstrated, and is certainly capable of replicating, even at higher levels of responsibility, in the Nation’s Health sector.
It is noteworthy that, at no cost whatever, Dr Dada positively impacted many
other health institutions nationwide.
God forbid that Nigeria should lose a dedicated expert of this calibre to other health agencies outside our borders.
Hearty cheers to Dr Adedamola Dada, an incredible public servant.
May your tribe increase.