LUTH Group Medical Director Lists Referral, Emergency Challenges

<h4>LUTH Group Medical Director Lists Referral&comma; Emergency Challenges<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that Professor Wasiu Adeyemo&comma; the Chief Medical Director &lpar;CMD&rpar;&comma; Lagos University Teaching Hospital &lpar;LUTH&rpar;&comma; has urged healthcare facilities to collaborate to strengthen the medical referral system for improved outcomes of emergency health conditions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Adeyemo spoke against the backdrop of persistent lack of bed space across public hospitals in the country&comma; on the sideline of a press conference organised by the hospital in Lagos&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He stated that the issue of limited bed spaces particularly in tertiary health institutions would be a thing of the past if health facilities would synergise to strengthen the referral system such that patients would be properly referred prior to notifications&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The LUTH CMD decried lapses in the medical referral system among hospitals&comma; saying that many secondary and primary healthcare facilities&comma; including private hospitals&comma; didn’t follow the due processes of medical referral system&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Adeyemo said that this often resulted in poor outcomes of health emergency responses&comma; as well as rejection of patients because the available facilities&sol;bedspace were apparently occupied by other patients dully on admission&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to him&comma; some hospitals refer patients without making necessary contacts and communications with the tertiary health institutions to ascertain their readiness to handle the health emergency&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He said that there was a limit to what a tertiary hospital such as LUTH could take in consideration of its personnel and available facilities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The CMD emphasised the need for hospitals to follow due process of medical referral system by contacting the tertiary health institutions particularly before referring patients to the hospital&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He said this was imperative to enable the hospital to prepare and be ready to receive the patient and prevent situations where the patient would be rejected due to lack of a bed space or facilities needed for his or her treatment&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Unfortunately&comma; a lot of hospitals dump patients on us without due verification&comma; notification or communication to ascertain the hospital’s readiness to receive the patient&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Sending a patient with just a referral letter is not enough&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There is need to always call the hospital&comma; informing it about the patient to be referred and probably get its approval on phone before sending the patient across&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There is a limit to what we can do&comma; considering the number of personnel and facilities on ground&comma;” Adeyemo said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Contributing&comma; the Medical Director&comma; National Orthopedic Hospital&comma; Igbobi&comma; Dr Wakeel Lawal&comma; said the issue of bedspace had been a long time big dynamic challenge across public hospitals in Lagos State&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Lawal attributed the situation to the increasing population of the state&comma; which was currently over 23 million people&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Highlighting measures that could be introduced to salvage the situation&comma; Lawal urged Lagosians to change their health seeking behaviours&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He underscored the need for residents to develop the habit of seeking healthcare early when their health conditions had not escalated into emergency situation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;With the increasing population of Lagos State&comma; a lot of people may need hospital admission at the same&comma; leading to persistent lack of bed spaces at one point or the other&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;However&comma; people should change their healthcare seeking behaviour&semi; they should not wait or allow their health situation to reach critical emergency condition before seeking care&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This is necessary to avert deaths and fatalities resulting from untimely attended emergency conditions due to limited bed spaces in the public hospitals&comma;” Lawal said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;