SATURDAY Vanguard, NOVEMBER 23, 2013—13
LAGOS STATE BY SOLA OGUNDIPE, RACHEAL OLAYIWOLA & MODINAT AMUSA
Things are looking up
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urrently, Lagosians enjoy the best of both worlds in terms of government and private health institutions. Government health institutions have strong presence at Federal and State levels and leading the pack is the 52-yearold Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, Idi Araba, widely acknowleged as one of the nation’s “Centres of Medical Excellence”. When it comes to matters of health, Lagos is listed among States in the “high end” class because of the high number and variety of general and specialist health facilities on offer. A rundown of statistics of healthcare facilities in the State is a pointer to this potential. Statistics from the Healthcare Facilities Monitoring and Accreditation Agency, HEFAMAA, shows that in Lagos, there are 26 registered General Hospitals, 256 public healthcare centers, 2, 886 private hospitals or specialist clinics and laboratories or diagnostic centers in addition to an estimated 160 tradoimedical centers. HEFAMAA was set up by health sector reform law of 2006 to ensure improvement in the quality and efficiency of health care delivery in the State. HEFAMAA performs its regulatory functions to ensure that the minimum set standards by law are maintained thereby securing the safety of lives of its citizenry. Unarguably, things are certainly looking up for Lagosians when it comes to matters of health. Gone are the days when a State or Federal medical institution situated in Lagos would wear the toga of abject neglect or gets bogged down by lack of medical manpower. These days the level of preparedness, service and attention to detail is quite commendable. From one public health institution to the other, one can say with confidence that the game has been stepped up in terms of qualitative delivery of healthcare and staff augmentation. This is not to say it is all plain sailing. There are problems and it is not uncommon to find lapses here and there, but the bottom line is that is the state of hospitals in Lagos is at its best now much more than in recent times. Things can get a lot better if government lives up to expectation. Tertiary health care centers that are the highest of all government hospitals in terms of facilities and staff as well as functions are the University Teaching Hospital, the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, National Orthopadaeic Hospital Igbobi and the Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba. Between them, they train hundreds of thousands of medical personnel for the country’s health sector while also rendering diverse medical services. These institutions have capacity to carry out complex medical services such as heart surgeries,
Generally in Lagos, the holistic approach to healthcare delivery is the norm. There are efforts geared towards minimising the current trend of Nigerians traveling overseas in search of medical treatment to drive the concept of medical tourism kidney transplant or other organ transplants. For instance, at the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, care for the mentally ill is remarkable. There are no theatres but there are professionals who can take care of any psychiatric problem as well as consultants, clinical psychologists and psychiatric nurses and social health workers all trained to deal with related psychiatric cases. The approach to diagnosis is quite modern with approaches such as ECT and ECG tests. A top management staff described the 535-bed hospital is the largest dedicated hospital for mental health in the country. “All the staff, psychiatrist doctors to the nurses, and even the cleaner and security personnel are all specially trained. In some cases, people abandon their rela-
tives and it becomes the burden of the Federal government to cater for them. The treatment and follow up is crucial and as part of the training, the first thing is the orientation to correct and change negative attitude. Most people are of the opinion that only government health institutions provide the best care services and case studies of the state of the medical institutions Lagos revealed that although efforts are in the right direction, a lot still has to be done. One of the most vexing issues which is staff attitude, appears to be improving, although far from perfect. Patients confirm that the quality of services rendered by hospitals is better while some say it is satisfactory in some cases and poor in others. The biggest complaints are connected with the long waiting times to the slow and unreliable doctors’ appointments at the clinics and endless queues. There are still instances where allegations of staff demanding money from patients to hasten their appointment with a doctor make the headlines, but all in all, the quality of staff appears better than in the recent past, even if there may be need to employ more staff in the hospital. But there are challenges. One thing that practically every health institution in Lagos is looking forward to is increased budgetary allocation even as the Federal government has restated commitment towards improving facilities in Federal Teaching and Specialist hospitals across the country. This complaint of inadequate allocation in the face of increasing utility expenses runs across all Federal and State health institutions. Issues of inadequate Capital Appropriation and untimely release of funds are often listed as factors affecting the level of desirable infrastructural
development of hospitals in Lagos. The resultant effect of this is that quite a number of these health institutions are compelled to augment their expenditure in their own way, while ensuring the upkeep of patients does not become an even bigger challenge. But it is also not unlikely that the patient bears the brunt of these imposed increases by way of increased service charges. Generally in Lagos, the holistic approach to healthcare delivery is the norm. There are efforts geared towards minimising the current trend of Nigerians traveling overseas in search of medical treatment to drive the concept of medical tourism. While there are so-called 5Star privately owned hospitals operating in Lagos, it is on record that the majority of such privatelyowned health institutions are best described as consulting clinics. Hence the average Lagos-based hospital and maternity center could offer more specialized services in addition to the general services rendered. Primary health care centers render sundry health care services while General Hospitals render general medical services including surgery to the public. Most of the existing General Hospitals in Lagos were constructed in the 1970s and 1980s but have undergone significant refurbishing and upgrading under the current administration. This has been augmented with better conditions of service for the staff. Patronizing the government owned hospitals is good because it guarantees treatment from skilled and well trained personnel as well as being affordable; however, the biggest drawback is the inadequacy of the facilities to cope with the huge demand and heavy rush of patients. Hence, services tend to slow, inefficient and frustrating for those who require it.