The management of Lagos University Teaching Hospital LUTH has said news of shut down of wards in the facility is inaccurate, averring that the hospital ranks among the best health facilities in Africa with 24-hour power supply.
LUTH Chief Medical Director, Wasiu Adeyemo, while denying the viral news that the hospital is in critical crisis over the reported shutdown of some wards owing to brain drain, said it is far from the truth.
It would be recalled that during the week, reports quoted the Chairman of the Health Committee of the House of Representatives, Amos Magaji, saying five wards had been shut at the tertiary health facility with about 150 wards affected.
Mogaji during a media chat shortly after an oversight visit to the hospital earlier in the week, said the alarming rate of migration of health workers was becoming a national embarrassment to the country.
A professor of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Mr Adeyemo, in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, said the comment was taken out of context.
While confirming the impacts of brain drain on the operations of the facility, Adeyemo said the hospital has a total of 45 wards and about 1,000 beds.
Adeyemo noted that some of wards reported to have been closed had also been merged with the existing wards “owing largely to ongoing renovations and not strictly for ‘japa’ reasons.”
Adeyemo posited that aside the five wards, the hospital still possesses the best health facilities and delivers quality health services with about 40 functioning wards and over 800-bed capacity.
“We can’t underestimate or underrate the reality. However, we must not blow it out of proportion so we don’t cause panic among the people. Virtually all wards are general wards and we can admit to any of them, except paediatrics,” the CMD explained.
The CMD said the Nigerian government recently approved money for infrastructural renewal and renovation of the wards, with the retrofitting requiring moving and merging wards with others.
“After we renovated, moving back became a problem. So, we didn’t shut down. To go back, we realised we didn’t have enough nurses to handle them,” he said.
“During an engagement with the House Committee, we highlighted our challenges and their presentation of the issue was well understood. I just want to put perspectives into this matter.”
Adeyemo said the facilities in LUTH ranks among the best and most equipped health institutions in Africa, noting that LUTH has the largest cancer centre, a 40-bed capacity ultra-modern neonatal intensive care unit and labour ward complex as well as a 30-bed intensive care unit.
