Authorities of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital have explained why every patient seeking treatment in the hospital may not be accepted. The hospital management spoke in reaction to the complaint of a man who said that his sick mother waited for four hours before LASUTH could accept her for treatment.The aged woman was on oxygen, Enitan, who is also a political analyst said.
He had tweeted, “My mother was referred to @LASUTH from Unita Hospital, Ikotun, Lagos, as emergency after stabilising her with oxygen. Its been 4 hours & she’s still left in the car at the medical emergency entrance with no doctor or nurse attending to her @LASUTH Ikeja.”
His tweet caught the attention of the Lagos State Commissioner of Health, Prof. Akin Abayomi, who tweeted back: “Sorry for the delay in attending to your mother. I have sent you an important message, check your DM now.”
Enitan later tweeted back: “Dear all, I really appreciate your prayers, comment and concerns. The honorable commissioner of health Prof. Akin Abayomi, has intervened. My mother has also been taken in. God bless you all.”
However, responding to Enitan’s tweet, LASUTH, via its Twitter handle @LASUTHikeja, stated in a series of tweets the reasons it could not admit the elderly patient.
“LASUTH would love to admit ALL cases referred to it IMMEDIATELY but unfortunately this is NOT possible. First and foremost, our hospital remains the preferred destination in Lagos axis for complicated medical cases.
“As a result, we get more referrals than we can possibly admit. We have a finite number of beds for admission purposes and once they are all filled up, the best we can do is to apply first aid and send referred cases to another tertiary centre where they may have a good chance of being admitted.
“The resuscitation and first aid may sometimes be applied in the vehicles they came in. Clearly, that is a better option than sending patients away without being attended to.”
Continuing, @LASUTHikeja said, “Secondly, there is a covid pandemic. Suspected covid cases have to be carefully handled so as to reduce the chances of our health workers getting infected.
“Even with such caution applied, almost 200 LASUTH health workers had been infected with the covid virus so far. There had been four fatalities including two consultants and a senior matron.
“Such Suspected cases need to be immediately investigated before admission, even if there is a vacant bed. They are temporarily admitted to the Covid Holding Bay until their test results are available. These are some of the reasons why there may appear to be some delay in certain cases.”
The hospital took an umbrage at Enitan for stating his experience on the social media, saying, “We frown at the idea of jumping to the social media to report inaccuracies and inexactitudes about our hospital.
“Its reputation is being unnecessarily rubbished because people have an easy access to the social media.
“We wish to assure the general public that our hospital continues to strive towards a universally acceptable standard of care. Our management, its reputation is being unnecessarily rubbished because people have an easy access to the social media.
“And health workers deserve commendation for continuing to offer excellent services despite several known constraints.”
source: Punch
