Our immediate environment remains our constraint —CMD, LTH

LAUTECH Teaching Hospital (LTH), Ogbomoso, Oyo State was established in 2011. Since then, the hospital has faced not a few challenges as part of its development process. Today, the management of the hospital is proud to say it has not only weathered the storms, but has begun making impact in the medical sphere especially within its geographical domain of the South-West.

LTH provides access to advanced medical care for distant areas outside the state capital. The hospital has also served patients from neighboring states of Osun and Kwara.

Regarding the core function of training, LTH has trained medical laboratory scientists, nurses, and doctors and pharmacists. “Our trainings have been certified by the West African College of Surgeons and West African College of Physicians. The hospital has also produced award winning post-graduate students in medicine,” Acting Chief Medical Director and Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC), Dr Ademola Aremu, said recently during a media tour of the hospital.

He announced that LTH successfully carried out a ground breaking surgical procedure in the treatment of a gall bladder infection in a 14-year-old boy.

Dr Ademola, speaking with media men in his office, said the procedure known as laparoscopic cholecystectomy was such that only a pin-hole perforation was done instead of a large incision in the body as has been traditionally done in medicine for the surgical removal of a gall bladder infection. The procedure, he disclosed was unparalleled in any teaching hospital in the South West.

Conducting journalists around the hospital were Consultant Orthopaedic and former Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee, Dr Olawale Olakulehin and Consultant Paediatrician, Dr Michael Onigbinde. The team visited a gas plant by which the teaching hospital has become self-sufficient in production of surgical gases.

At the radiology department, Consultant Radiologist, Dr T.O. Ajade showed the team the department’s computerised tomography machine. “It has 64 slides that provide greater and more accurate details when organs of the body such as the brain, blood vessels, and bones are being examined. There is only one other machine like this in the entire nation. Our mammography machine is also about the latest,” Dr Ajade stated.

At the dialysis unit, Professor of Medicine and Nephrology, Professor Olugbenga Ayodele, explained that LTH had a good number of dialysis machines for the effective treatment of kidney problems. The unit has in  20 days carried out about 34 sessions of kidney dialysis, Professor Ayodele added.

According to Dr Onigbinde, proper infant care is not complete without special care baby units. In LTH, the special baby care unit “has successfully nursed a baby weighing 0.7kg,” Dr Onigbinde said as he pointed out the feats done in the hospital’s pediatrics department which is fully equipped to cater for premature births and complications that could arise during and after child delivery, including cleft-lip surgeries.

Amenities which LTH enjoys includes a dedicated power line from the national grid station in Kwara, supported by two 1,100 KVA generators, and a biological waste incinerator. The hospital was built with a dam with the potential of supplying not only the hospital, but the entire host community with potable water. However, funds have hindered this from happening as the dam is not yet completed.  A 198-body capacity morgue exists, complete with autopsy and dressing rooms.

In addition, the hospital provides accommodation for house officers and doctors.

The acting CMD commended the Oyo State government for its support in the running of the hospital. He added that the hospital could achieve more with greater support from the government in order to maintain equipment and take care of staff welfare.

“Being surrounded by rural and agrarian communities, there is a limit to what we can charge. If our charges are high, people will take their sick ones home to die.

“We appreciate the support of the state governor and the people of Ogbomoso. We will continue to require their support to fulfill our responsibilities and maintain the equipment we have here,” he said.