COVID-19 suspects have filled our casualty unit - FMC Abeokuta

Professor Adewale Musa-Olomu is the Medical Director, Federal Medical Centre, Abeokuta. In this interview by SADE OGUNTOLA, he speaks on efforts of his administration to improve the health of Nigerians as well as his strides at the hospital.

What was the state of facilities and medical services in the hospital when you newly assumed office?

When I assumed duties some three years ago, the first thing I did was to identify problems facing this centre. What we found out was like we were starting everything from scratch. For instance, in the radiology department, there was no functional radiology machine. There was no functional x-ray machine, not even the common ultrasound machine used for scanning pregnancy. It was like in terms of radiological services, there was nothing.

Also, of the eight suite theatres, only one was partially functioning despite the hospital’s over 50 consultants and its different specialties. There was no facility to even carry out the common tests as Packed Cell Volume (PCV), to ascertain blood level. Virtually all our training programs, including those training doctors, were not accredited.

What are some changes made to improve the state of facilities and medical services in the hospital?

Right now there is nothing that you want to mention in terms of radiology that FMC, Abeokuta, does not have, including two digital x-ray machines and a CT scan machine, while efforts are being made to acquire an MRI machine before the end of this month. We also have new mammographic, fluoroscopy machines, new mobile x-ray in casualty, cardiothoracic centre and radiotherapy centres under construction with a modern cath-lab.

Similarly, six out of the eight suites in the modular theatre have been activated, so presently all the six are working. They were also equipped with the latest equipment. The labour room theatre is in functioning capacity. Also, new modern machines for the laboratory department were procured for optimal performance in laboratory investigations.

In addition, our internally generated revenue has tripled. Almost all our postgraduate clinical programs have full accreditation from both the national and West African postgraduate medical colleges.

Our physiotherapy outlet is the largest in the country with a standard gymnasium. The centre presently boasts of a conference hall which can accommodate 2,500 persons at a time with modern telemedicine facilities.

Similarly, we have engaged FERMA in the internal asphalt road construction while computerisation of the hospital with internet facility projects has been successfully executed.

Equally, we recorded success in the oxygen plant production project to the extent that oxygen is being piped everywhere including the accident/emergency unit.

Another area where the present administration recorded an amazing breakthrough was the full completion of four abandoned projects out of eight. This is why I want to appeal to the Federal Government to help us with more funds.

When we talk about the patient’s comfort, you can imagine having to place both male and female surgical patients in one ward. Now, we built new wards to house surgical male patients and surgical female patients separately. This is the only tertiary functional hospital in this area; you can imagine the plethora of patients that come in from Lagos, Ibadan, Republic of Benin and so on.

Of course, because of transportation, many relatives of these patients sleep in obscure places within the hospital. So, a two-storey building that will house no less than 150 of such visitors was commenced for their use less than a year ago. It is almost 99 per cent completed. Aside from this, there is an intra centre tricycle transportation arrangement to ease movement. This is connected by an intercom to the hospital. It is all about us making patients and their relatives comfortable.

In all of these, I will like to appreciate President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of Health for their dynamic leadership towards ensuring that the people of this country have access to quality healthcare services. The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has been quite supportive of this centre in the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE).

Out-of-stock drug syndrome is a common problem in many hospitals. Is it same here?

Past predecessors of this administration incurred a debt of over N150 million on drugs. There were quite a number of strike actions and the hospital was not working and so the drugs got bad. Now, this debt is now less than N25 million. Aside from the construction of a new building for a pharmacy which is ongoing, the public-private partnership (PPP) initiated for the pharmacy has drastically improved pharmaceutical services. It has brought down to almost zero the usually experienced out-of-stock syndrome of the past.

With the hospital’s six theatres fully functional now, what is your surgical list like?

We are now able to deal with more surgical cases and we don’t turn back surgical emergencies. And more specialties like ophthalmology and neurosurgery have opened. We do on the average 300 surgeries per month; it was like 80 surgeries per month back then.

We have added cardiothoracic surgery; it is not something that is common with federal medical centres which are often seen as glorified general hospitals.  That is what we want to disabuse the minds of people from.  General hospitals don’t perform complex surgeries like open-heart surgery, removal of brain tumours and correction of spinal cord problems. The neurosurgical unit of the hospital has successfully removed brain tumour in no fewer than 150 patients since the employment of neurosurgeons by the present administration.

Where did these patients with brain tumours come from? Is there an epidemic of the problem in the area?

No. There is no epidemic of brain tumours. They must have been to other centres, but when their surgical list was too long over there and the facilities overstretched, they decided to patronise other facilities. It is the same case with radiotherapy services. If we have a functional radiotherapy centre here, patients will come. Other hospitals are overbooked, so definitely they will decongest to where there is less density.

What has been the experience of the hospital on COVID-19?

We treat many cases of COVID-19. As a matter of fact, recently, two Indian expatriates were successfully treated in this centre. Out of satisfaction with the way they were taken care of by our personnel, one of them wrote a letter of commendation to the hospital management. Our main challenge however in this area is a delay in the release of PCR results. May I state that the PCR and gene Xpert machines are with the state government and this delay results for up to seven days or more? Though, there are little improvements after numerous complaints but it is not sustained. Hence, our casualty is loaded with COVID-19 suspects.

We, therefore, strongly appeal to the government to expedite action on this while we appeal to the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency, provide us with modern isolation centre and intensive care unit (ICU). It was only last week that the commissioner for health promised us that Ogun state government would be giving our test priority and the results would be back after 48 hours. They also promised to ensure the backlog of results is cleared.

You recently activated your unit for patients with stroke. Why was this done?

They were about establishing it when I came. So, we brought in more hands to take care of these patients. The unit is really functioning now and it is one of the best in the country. More and more cases of stroke are coming and they need to be attended to. The unit works with the physiotherapists.