Wale Jagun & Kunle Adelabu
The Medical Director/Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO), General Hospital, Ikorodu, Dr Taiwo Hassan, has asserted that the General Hospital, Ikorodu, has the capacity to be a teaching hospital in training intending medical personnel and delivering adequate health services to the public.
He also revealed that the hospital is in talk with a private University for the purpose of it serving as its teaching hospital.
These revelations were made when Dr Hassan was hosted on THE IMPACT WhatsApp platform in commemoration of the years anniversary of his leadership in the hospital, which was marked on Sunday, June 12, 2022.
He also spoke on how he has been able to turn the medical facility from its sorry state and made it a reference medical centre with equipment and services that have been classified as world – class by patients.
Presently, the hospital is running 32 departments with 700 staff.
Some of the departments are Medicine Department that runs the Cardiology, Diabetes and Sickle Cell Clinics; Surgery which runs, General surgery and urology clinics; Pediatric departments for the children up to 12 years; Obstetrics and Gynecology department; Community health and General outpatient departments; Mental health department; Nursing department; Orthopeadic department; Burns and plastic department and Anatomic pathology that runs mortuary and pathology services.
There are also Physiotherapy departments; Social welfare department; Dietetics department; Pharmacy department; Laboratory services department; Radiology department; Dental department and Opthalmology department for Eye patients among others.
“We are not considering being annexed to LASUTH, we have the capacity to stand alone as a teaching hospital and we are already in talks with a private University”, Dr Hassan disclosed.
“When the Nigeria Medical and Dental council came for the accreditation of the hospital to train house officers, they laid credence to the fact that most teaching hospitals don’t even have what General Hospital lkorodu is parading and they suggested we apply to be upgraded to a multi specialist hospital instead of a General hospital”.
While stating that the hospital is yet to have an ICU because of the huge cost involved, he said that they are making frantic efforts to put achieve this, and added that on his assumption of office, he created a High Dependency Unit (HDU) which is a mini ICU.
“The cost of an ICU is huge but one of the First things that I did on assumption of office was the establishment of High Dependency Unit (HDU) with 3 number Ventilators and ICU monitors. it’s a 3 bedded and a miniature ICU, because of its importance to critically ill patients. it’s a life saver. I thank Almighty God for this singular achievement”, he said.
On the Accident and Emergency Section (A&E Section) of the hospital which he said is being overstretched because of the increasing number of patients, the MD/CEO said that the management is working with the government and people supporting the hospital to construct a new A & E section that would accommodate more patients and bring about improved service.
“The construction of the Accident and Emergency was facilitated during the administration of Dr Olukoya as a 12 bedded A and E by Heineken African Foundation in 2015, but the facility has been stretched to 25 bedded because of the influx of patients and the desire not to suffer patients with too many referrals for lack of bed space”, he said.
“We are talking with relevant authorities and friends of the hospital for the construction of a new A and E”, he added.
In the last two years, Dr Hassan, who had served under two MD/CEOs in General Hospital, Ikorodu, as Deputy, has created a conducive working environment where staff and management are now working in harmony with passion while residents in and outside lkorodu are trooping in to experience timely and effective service delivery which has made the hospital a reputable organization that is now competing with best around the world.
“I was Deputy Medical Director under two previous Medical Directors, so, I know where the shoe pains. First, I had to get the staff to buy into my vision for the hospital; taking hospital care services to its zenith and we gave voice to all staff to complain and express themselves and we improved on their welfare greatly “, he said.
“We equally did a lot of training and retraining on staff atitudes and improved on capacity building. We equally did a lot in the area of stakeholders’ engagement.
“A lot of decayed infrastructure have been put in good condition by the Hospital Management Committee and through the help of friends of the hospital”.
He said that the challenges confronting the hospital are readiness of the employed doctors and other staff to stay, staff attitude and others.
“Staff attrition rate for both doctors and nurses, they are employed today, tomorrow they are out for greener pastures.
“Staff attitude, which is major, is something that we are working on every day through trainings, talk, seminars and a lot of Altitudinal re – trainings.
“Another one is multiple competing demands for the little fund available, but we a lot better from where we were coming from”.
The MD/CEO, speaking further on the achievements of his administration, also said that:
“We have done a lot together with my team in the last 2 years. I will mention a few: We trained house officers who would now become full-fledged doctors; we trained resident doctors from LUTH and LASUTH in General Surgery and obstetrics and Gynecology.
“We equally train doctors from National Orthopeadic Hospital, Igbobi, in Burns and plastic surgery and also orthopeadic surgery.
“We renovated the Accident and Emergency, Male and Female Wards to commendable standards.
“We renovated the Orthopedic and Physiotherapy departments to a commendable standard. In truth, we have the best physiotherapy departments among the 28 General Hospitals in Lagos State, while we have equally recorded many more giant strides”, Dr Hassan said.
“We equally trained Residents’ Doctors from Island Maternity hospital and only last week, we got requests from very reputable private hospital in Lagos for partnership to train resident doctors.
“These trainings started during my stewardship and all the additions , such as introduction of Burns and Plastic Department, the Anatomic Pathology Department. Also, we can now do Autopsy at the General hospital without referring to LASUTH or LUTH.
“We have equally started the construction of a bed lift for the hospital which will ease the movement of critically ill patients from the Theater to the wards and vice visa and equally from the Accident and Emergency to Male or Female Wards. It’s the first since the hospital was established 39 years ago.
“General Hospital,lkorodu, has won the Best Service Chartered hospital back to back for 6 years now”, he added.
Dr Hassan encouraged residents of Ikorodu and Lagos State as a whole to engage in health insurance in the interest of providing comprehensive health coverage for their family, while speaking on access to health.
“For Children age 0 – 6years, we do 50% rebate for them. For adults, we encourage them to register with Lagos State Health Management Agency (LASHMA), so that they will have health insurance that will cover them and their spouses with four children less than 18 years of age. Health insurance is the way, cost of running health facilities is huge and government alone cannot do it, worldwide health insurance is the only way forward”, he said.
He added that medical consultations are free in Lagos State for all ages.
