Health
By Kennedy Nnamani
PROF. Chris Bode, Chief Medical Director of Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, says that he has worked with an incredible team to restore the University of Lagos, Unilag, to the Training Hub in Medical Disciplines it once was.
Speaking recently at the 7th inaugural lecture in the 2021/2022 academic session of the University of Lagos with the theme: “Bloom Where You Are Planted: From Paediatric Surgeon to Hospital Administration”, Prof. Bode noted that after the confirmation of his appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari in March, 2015 and reappointment in 2019 as the Chief Medical Director of LUTH, he has been working under three mandates: Service, Training and Research.
According to him, Service was of prime importance for without which no meaningful training or research was possible
He explained that his administration has made a number of modest contributions to elevate the LUTH brand and improve human and infrastructural capacities of the hospital.
Prof. Bode highlighted the immediate problem that challenged his administration on the onset to include poor staff morale, incessant strike actions and dilapidated infrastructure, which cost the University accreditation in surgery as well as bad state of cancer treatment machine, X-ray machines and other equipment.
However the CMD stated that he and his team launched the quest for a better way out of the morass.
“We first set achievable goals and with the belief it could be done, we mapped out how to perform this task, after which we implemented.
“We reached for a couple of low-hanging fruits, completed ongoing projects and strategized on medium/long-term projects and set to work.
“We equally started working to rectify the environment riven with dissatisfied groups of opposing professional camps.
“We implemented the no-work-no-pay policy twice and all strikes abated. We took confidence-building measures and encouraged dialogue with all stakeholders and the situation gradually became manageable,” he said.
He further highlighted more infrastructural renaissance achieved in his time, which included modular theatre, acute stroke unit, LUTH-Crystal Optics Lab, blood bank, laser surgery centre, Biomedical Engineering School, Independent power project, LUTH-NSIA Cancer treatment centre project, cancer diagnostic centre.
Others were administrative block, department of radiology, labor ward/new Neonatal Unit rehabilitation, new 30-bed intensive care unit, hospital information management system, FGN Intervention Fund, new isolation centre, child and adolescent psychiatry clinic.
While speaking on his advocacy for private, public and corporate infrastructural support, Prof. Bode stated that early in his administration, he embarked on a robust round of advocacy for LUTH, “visiting tens of private, public and corporate institutions to seek support for our dream of an infrastructural renaissance in LUTH.”
According to him, there are more than 10 projects worth N30 billion brought to LUTH through the “vigorous advocacy” such of which include the Isaac Olusola Dad Dialysis Centre and Nephrology Institute, rehabilitation of blocks of wards (Blocks A, B, C), 254-room out-patient department, Bone marrow transplant centre.
Others include Alima Atta Oncology ward, road repair by FERMA, replacement of Antiquated Dental chairs, kidsOR, LUTH APIN Anti-Retroviral service clinic among others
Prof. Bode therefore noted that these efforts were successful through human capacity building and infrastructural rehabilitation.
According to him, engagement with and improvement of the knowledge/skills based on colleagues, lecturers as well as resident doctors were major contributors to the recorded success. To him, this is “because these are the two groups from whom our medical students learn.”
In the same vein, on his contribution to the community, Prof. Bode highlighted his services as secretary general of West African College of Surgeons in 1998, as SERVICOM Nodal officer, and as chairman, medical advisory committee of LUTH
Prof. Bode was drafted to become the chairman Advisory committee of LUTH in 2013 from where he rose to become the Chief Medical Director of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and he is serving his second four-year tenure, which ends in 2023.
KN
Tags: Kennedy Nnamani LUTH Muhammadu Buhari Prof. Chris Bode
