The Chief Medical Director (CMD), University College Hospital(UCH), Ibadan, Oyo State, Profesor Temitope Alonge, has said patients rushed to the Emergency Department of the hospital will no longer have to wait endlessly to get the results of their tests and scans, as the results will be ready within 20 minutes.
He disclosed this over the weekend after he commissioned a newly renovated and restructured Emergency Department of the teaching hospital, which was substantially razed by fire on July 26, 2016.
The inferno affected middle part of the emergency unit and destroyed the ceiling, couches mattresses and some equipment.
The fire incident was said to have been caused by a spark from a faulty solar panel.
According to Alonge, the Emergency Department has been equipped with the images from CT-Scan, MRI, and digital x-rays being captured on the screen.
“The doctors, do not have to look for the films to take a decision. A lot of the delays in the emergency department have actually come because the investigation of results have not been downloaded or they don’t have them. But now, the biochemistry and blood works can be done with automated machine and x-ray films from CT-Scan. MRI will be captured automatically on the computerised system.
“So, the doctors, within a space of 20 minutes, can conclude the care plan of every patient because all the results that are required are available. It is a new addition and it is very exciting.”
The UCH CMD stated further that each of the cubicles in the emergency department.
“now have oxygen ports, meaning that the patients can have oxygen without having to be lined up in the corridor. What this means is that if a patient needs oxygen urgently, it has been piped and we don’t have to go and look for cylinders to roll in while we wait. We can just take off the wrap, put it on the patient’s face and the patient starts to breathe spontaneously.”
On measures put in place to prevent recurrence of fire outbreak in the hospital, He said: “What happened the last time was that the solar connection that was actually redundant. It was this that sparked the fire incident. Those cables have been removed. The insulators that conducted the fire have also been disconnected. So, the emergency department is free of encumbrances.
“The other areas where fire can penetrate have been blocked from the ceiling so that fire does not go through a wall. We expect that with all the new cables that have been put in place, things are going to work together.”
The emergency unit, he said, would have been available from yesterday, but the nurses would have to move their luggage from the temporary site – General Out-Patient Department to the new place and by 8am on Monday, the renovated and restructured accident and emergency department will be in use.