80% of Emergencies Brought To LASUTH Not Tertiary Cases – CMD


Posted on: Mon 26-07-2021

The Chief Medical Director of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Prof. Adetokunbo Fabamwo, has said about 80 per cent emergency cases coming to the hospital are not patients that should be referred to the health care service provider.

Fabamwo, at a media parley, said the hospital had a 750-bed capacity to admit patients, adding that construction work of a 200-bed facility was going on.

“We have 750-bed capacity at the moment if we include paediatrics and maternity beds. Reasonably, okay for a teaching hospital, but for the kind of demands and megacity we are serving, we need more. For instance, the emergency room is always filled up unless some patients get better and are transferred to the wards.

“What we find interesting is that about 80 per cent of cases that are brought to LASUTH as emergencies are not really tertiary cases. They are cases that could have been referred to any of our 27 general hospitals. We are happy that people have confidence in us and we would really have loved to be able to take as many as possible patients,” the CMD said.

Fabamwo also stressed the importance of public-private partnerships in delivering quality health care to the people.

He said some of the ongoing projects in the hospital were being financed through the public-private partnership model.

Fabamwo added that an endoscopy suite as well as an oxygen plant which would enhance sufficiency and save more patients were on the verge of being completed.

“The endoscopy suite will have eight renal dialysis units, a cardiac catheterisation laboratory and private rooms to cater for the patients.

“Cardiac catheterisation laboratory is a special hospital room where a doctor performs minimally invasive tests and procedures to diagnose and treat cardiovascular diseases,” the CMD said.

The LASUTH CMD noted that pulmonary embolism, heart attack and hemorrhagic stroke were some of the major causes of sudden deaths among the populace.

“Pulmonary embolism is when one or more arteries in the lung become blocked by a blood clot, usually such a patient has a short time to survive. We have interventional cardiologists who can conduct procedures to remove the clot in a pulmonary embolism patient and even, myocardial infarction patients.

“Before setting up this our laboratory, our interventional cardiologists have been performing these surgeries in the past, although it was under a less than ideal condition. Having these laboratories would save more lives and make life easier for the doctors and the patients,” Fabamwo said.

The hospital’s Director, Clinical Services and Training, Dr Adebowale Adekoya, said the various projects embarked upon by the hospital were to ensure affordability and accessibility to quality health care for the populace.