In this exclusive interview with a team of reporters, Dr. Akinola Akinmade, Deputy Chief Medical Director of the Afe Babalola University Teaching Hospital, ABUADTH, talks about Aare Afe Babalola, the founder's commitment to attracting the world to Nigeria for excellent medical care through its well funded and well equipped Teaching Hospital
How did the process of this mega hospital start?
It started in April 2018. We have several innovations we put in place to make sure we have seamless health delivery.
The first is the reception. You can get registered to access treatment, see a doctor, consultations. All these can be done electronically. We don’t have case files. We don’t give patient a card or make them sign a paper. Once you register here, your information will be available at all the service centers in the hospital.
And if you come back in 20 years, your information will be intact because we have the information stored in a backup cloud
Can you highlight the makeup of the different units?
We have six multifunctional dental chairs that can do a wild range of dental procedures.
You can do dental implants, from basic things like scaling and polishing and they are affordable.
Scale and polishing can make your teeth whiter and nicer. These chairs can do a single tooth x-ray.
We also have the OPG machine that can do a panoramic view of the entire skull.
If you want to do a reconstruction surgery from the dental bones and things like that, you will do a reconstruction with the OPG first. We have six chairs, we have one dedicated for Paediatrics.
All the compressors are there, based on this, we have started a dental school and they are currently in 200 level going to 300 level and all the specialties are represented here.
We have done all sort of major dental stories.
We also have a machine that does the panoramic view of the head. This helps to have the overall view of the skull.
Ekiti does not have an airport. How can emergency cases get here for attention?
We have a helipad. That’s the Helipad. {Pointing to the direction}
The helicopter lands on it, the ambulance goes from here and there is a dedicated road for it, picks up the person and brings him or her straight to the emergency.
We have received several patients through the helipad.
Do you have equipment for Ears, Nose and Throat, ENT infection?
Yes, we have. This is the workstation, this is the piece of equipment, {Pointing at equipment}
If there are 100 procedures in ENT, this can do 90 percent. So the patients don’t have to go to the theater.
Once they are here, we can do most of the ENT procedures.
For instance, if a child puts an object in his or her ear, instead of going to the theater looking for it, you can remove all that here. We can remove stuff in the throat, ear and so on.
This equipment, (pointing at a piece of equipment) is a stand-alone piece of equipment. This is very expensive. We have two of them in case we have a lot of patients. But the equipment is very expensive.
Audiology
This is the audiology booth,{Pointing at the machine} for those who have hearing defects.
Patient can go in here and out on the head phones and they are tested for their range of hearing and all that.
We fix patients for hearing aide.
Eye
If patient has eye defects and has undertaken measurement, the glasses are cut immediately and in two hours it is ready.
We have the optician and once you have your records, they do the cutting for you and in two hours you can get your glasses. You don’t have to come back or wait for days.
Cardiac Arrest
If the patient can get here within six hours and gets on this machine (pointing at a machine) the patient has bright chances of recovery.
That is why the helicopter is very important. If there is an accident victim and there is a cardiac arrest at home and the patient gets to the hospital in six hours, the patient goes home the next day. We have received patients from Sokoto, Kano, Lagos anywhere. We have 3 of these.
Heart Surgery
We have an open-heart surgery centre. It is for those that need heart surgeries including deformity of the heart, hole in the heart, atrial septal defects, etc.
They need the theater. We have the machines. We actually have two other machines for backup. When the patient gets here, they open the chest because they cannot operate on a breathing heart.
But sometimes, we can. But we can’t operate while the blood is in there. The blood flows into the heart-lung machine. We paralyize the hearth and work on the heart. When it is completed, the blood flows back into the heart and the machine is used to bring back the heart.
It’s a form of electrical shock and the heart comes back to life.
Then you take the patient back to the ICU, we have done more than 100 since we started. We have someone who does this. He is an Indian and he is on the ground full time. It is very expensive to keep them.
How many theaters do you have in this teaching hospital?
We have 10 theaters and these are modular theaters will full equipment.
These equipment cost so much. But how can average income earners access these facilities?
Yes, you have a point. One of the problems we have in the country is the absence of medical insurance. If the government can make health insurance available to all, medical care will as well be available to all.
However, our founder has ensured that health care in this Teaching Hospital is affordable to all.
Why is this teaching hospital under-publicized?
In the medical profession, we don't do adverts or any form of publicity. It's against the regulations of the profession. People get to know we have this equipment here either by referral or when reporters visit hospitals like you are doing.
Which prominent Nigerians have visited this place?
Governors across the country have been here. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, ex President Goodluck Jonathan, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and many more have been here.
Has President Buhari been here?
No. He has not come but he sent a representative.
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