Nigeria: LAUTECH hospital, second best in medicine in West Africa

Nigerian Tribune:
LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, Osun State is one of the foremost state-owned teaching hospitals in the South-western Nigeria. For a state hospital that has passed through different phases and challenges since its inception, Professor Olufemi Fadiora, its Chief Medical Director says it  remains a leading institution in training doctors, as corroborated by the West African College of Physicians’ rating its medicine department as second best in the region. Professor Fadiora spoke to Sade Oguntola. Excerpts:
What are the health services you offer? Are there new services and equipment to support good healthcare services?
On the taking off of my administration, there was no hospital, no doctor or patients. Everything was grounded, so we resuscitated the hospital to its present situation.  We have brought a lot of equipment for the hospital, which spanned all the departments including the family medicine, surgery, laboratory and obstetrics and gynaecology.  Other units such as the oxygen plant and the drug production unit have also being created.
What range of services does the hospital now offer as a result of its newly acquired equipment and units? We have the palliative unit, which services those with terminal illnesses such as cancer. They also do home visits and medicine. It is manned by a medical doctor, a specialist in this aspect of medicine. There are also resident doctor on training at the unit.
Now, we carry out laparoscopy surgery. This entails the use of equipment that can serve both curative and investigative purposes. Its usefulness comes to play in cases of fibroid, infertility and so on. Through a little opening that is created in the abdomen, we remove the appendix, gallbladder, and so on.
There is also liposuction equipment, which can help people get rid of their fat tummies. With this equipment acquired about two months ago, the fat can be sucked out, thereby helping the people to slim down. The unit is manned by plastic surgeons.  People with fat tummies and buttocks can benefit from this service.
Liposuction is the same as the tummy tuck surgery, which people talked about some years back.  At the physiotherapy unit, such people can also access equipment to help them lose weight and keep fit.
In the mortuary, we also have a lot of new equipment.  This includes equipment that can lift a dead body from the morgue. We have new morgues, which were acquired about six months ago. So, there are now three morgues that can take 12 bodies each at a time. The mortuary is clean; it does not smell and people that stay near the hospital can bear witness to this. At the medicine department, we have an equipment that is used to study the breathing pattern and rhythm. Lung functions of   patients with problems such as asthma and pneumonia can be assessed.
Any facility to help people with infertility problems? There are equipment to do sperm analysis so as to be able to help couples with infertility or what is termed assisted conception.  The hospital, before now, had sent some staff for training on assisted conception abroad. This was about two years ago. In fact, they already have many success stories.
What are some achievements of the hospital? Our medicine department was rated second best by West African College of Physicians about six months ago. They set up a committee to move around all the hospitals in West Africa and assess the medicine departments.
We have imparted a lot to medical knowledge. We have produced residents that are the best in their various areas of medicine. For example, the best resident doctor in the West African College of Surgeons in Community Medicine is from this hospital.
Also, the best student in surgery in the West African College of Surgeons last year also came from this hospital.  So, we have good products and we have also made it mandatory that all our resident doctors and consultants should go outside the country for training or conferences at least once a year. The hospital picks the bill.
What we are trying to do is to expose them and ensure that our resident doctors and consultants have international exposures by attending international workshops and conferences.
There are about 100 resident doctors at different stages of training and in different departments. In fact, some people are travelling abroad to acquire more outside experience for periods ranging from three to six months.