UCH acquires anaesthetic machines to reduce surgical backlogs

Fri, Aug 30, 2019
By publisher
2 MIN READ

Health

IN its bid to reduce the long surgery waiting period, the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, has acquired nine state-of-the art anaesthesia machines and equipment worth over N81 million.

The UCH Chief Medical Director, Prof. Jesse Otegbayo, stated this on Friday in Ibadan at the opening of the redesigned main theatre of the hospital.

Otegbayo said that leveraging on technological advances in the specialty of anaesthesiology would help improve patients’ care and speed up surgical procedures.

“When I went round the theatre at the inception of my administration, I saw the poor state of the facility, including the toilets and the changing rooms.

“The newly redesigned and renovated theatre is part of efforts to continue with the two cardinal points of this administration which are welfare of the staffers and comfort of our patients.

“We also got rid of the obsolete anaesthetic equipment and provide state-of -the-art anaesthetic equipment, as obtainable elsewhere in the world.

“With the equipment, the waiting list for surgeries will be reduced and access to surgical procedures easier, while there will be an increase in the number of surgeries being done.

“When the surgeons and other support staff are comfortable and have good work environment, they will be more passionate about their jobs and it will consequently affect healthcare outcome positively,’’ he said.

In his remarks, a professor of surgery, Samuel Ogunlade, commended the responsiveness and sensitivity of the CMD to the challenges being faced by theatre workers.

Ogunlade said that the work of anaesthesiologists, who form an integral part of surgical team, had been tedious due to working with obsolete and inadequate equipment.

“One of the problems in the surgery department is anaesthesia; sometimes, scheduled surgeries had to be cancelled or delayed because we didn’t have the right machine.

“Oftentimes, the few obsolete ones had to be shared, some of which were acquired about 20 years ago or even more.

“With the newly-acquired state-of-the-art equipment, anaesthesiologists can do their jobs confidently without fear of exposing the patients to unnecessary danger,’’ he said.

According to him, surgical procedures in the hospital will be faster, safer and easier, adding that it will also reduce recovery time and improve the overall healthcare outcomes. (NAN)

– Aug. 30, 2019 @ 13:39 GMT |

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