The Lagos State University Teaching Hospital has appealed to the public to subscribe to health insurance to enhance access to diverse services in the hospital.
The Chief Medical Director, LASUTH, Professor Tokunbo Fabamwo, made the appeal during a news conference on Wednesday in Lagos.
According to him, such insurance reduces financial strain on individuals and families and supports positive health outcomes of patients.
He revealed that many patients treated at the hospital have begged the management to write off their medical bills.
Prof. Fanbamwo, however, said that the situation was not sustainable for the hospital.
He said, “If people keep accessing care without paying, we might soon be driven out of service.
“We have been having many of such cases and have been handling it through our Social Workers Department and donations from generous Nigerians.
“However, the National Health Insurance Act (NHIA) and Lagos State Health Management Agency (LASHMA) have various health insurance plans that people can tap into, to reduce out-of-pocket spending.”
On infrastructure development, Prof. Fabamwo said the hospital recently inaugurated a 124-bed Sustainable Development Medical Centre, to reduce the challenge of bed space in the hospital.
The CMD said that the building donated by the Sustainable Development Goals office has medical care facilities and would house four medical schools.
The facilities he listed as the School of Anaesthesia Technology; Echo-cardiography; Orthopaedic Cast Technology and Post Graduate Nursing.
He also said that the 20-bed intensive unit at the building would assist the hospital to cope with the high demands for critical care by patients.
The CMD said that the SDG office was also working on a new female medical ward and new paediatrics sickle cell centre to improve the management of children with the disease.
According to him, efforts are ongoing to bridge the gap in the healthcare sector and solve the challenges of interventional procedures on a Public Private Partnership model.
He noted that the Special Services Centre was a PPP project that accommodates a Dialysis Unit, Bronchoscopy Suite, Cardiac Catheterisation Laboratory and an Endoscopy Suite.
Prof. Fabamwo said that the SSC’s services were economically affordable to patients across the state.
“The dialysis unit has eight dialysis stations which cater for a minimum of 22 sessions daily and 660 dialysis sessions monthly.
“The cardiac catheterisation laboratory was established in September 2022 and so far, 120 different procedures have been done.
“The spectrum of these procedures ranges from coronary procedures (for heart attack), permanent pacemaker, implantable cardioverter defibrillators, CRTD, device closures for hole-in-the heart and other vascular procedures,” he said.
Prof. Fabamwo said that several renovation and expansion projects were ongoing at the hospital to improve service delivery to patients.
Budgetary allocation and support, he also said, were provided for training and capacity development of staff, noting that over 100 training programmes were organised for more than 800 staff in different cadres.
According to him, the training is on periodic customer service and attitudinal change for staff to enhance empathy and quality service to patients.
He said that the hospital also recruited 165 staff across various departments as part of its exit replacement strategy to reduce the impact of brain drain on service delivery at the facility.
The CMD restated the commitment of the hospital to continue to upgrade and use the most current technologies to improve healthcare delivery.
(NAN)
