Prof. Adetokunbo Fabamwo, who is the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), said the hospital had fixed its problem with medical brain drain.
During its quarterly media meeting in Lagos, the CMD said the institution had filled the gap by hiring 165 staff as part of its exit replacement strategy. This was done because the problem mostly affected nurses and young doctors.
He said tthe programme has helped the hospital deal with the problem and keep providing high-quality, effective health care.
Fabamwo said, “There are usually two types of staff who move abroad. The majority of people who leave their home country are nurses, followed by young doctors. When a member of our staff leaves, we hire a new one right away to make sure there are no gaps in care. This is especially important because we are known for setting high standards and upgrading our buildings to provide the best care.
He said this was in addition to improving buildings to offer world-class health care services to stop people from going to other countries for medical care.
The CMD said that a multipurpose building with 124 beds and four schools (anesthesia technology, orthopedic cast technology, echocardiography, post-graduate nursing, and other units like family medicine, urgent care, dietetics, and immunization) would improve healthcare service.
He said that the building adds to the tools already there to help with the huge number of people who need health care.
Fabamwo said that improving diagnostic and treatment facilities, as well as the cheap bronchoscopy suite, heart catheterization laboratory, and endoscopic suite, would help patients all over Lagos.
He said that the hospital was excited to finish the junior sickle cell center, where doctors would take care of children with sickle cell the radiotherapy unit, which would help people with cancer.
The CMD asked for a partnership between the public and commercial sectors to improve healthcare in the state. He also said that no government in the world could pay for healthcare well enough on its own. He asked Nigerians to sign up for health insurance plans to cut down on costs.
“Citizens should sign up for the health insurance module so that their out-of-pocket costs are much lower and they don’t have to beg people to help pay their medical bills.
“People keep coming here because they get the care they need, but we have to pay vendors and partners for some of the care we give.” The consumables are paid for, so if we use them to treat a patient who doesn’t pay for them, we may end up as a hospital that can’t give care, which is something we don’t want,” Fabamwo explained.
