Prof. Wasiu Adeyemo, the Chief Medical Director (CMD), Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), has urged healthcare facilities to collaborate to strengthen the medical referral system for improved outcomes of emergency health conditions.
Adeyemo spoke against the backdrop of persistent lack of bed space across public hospitals in the country, on the sideline of a press conference organised by the hospital in Lagos.
He stated that the issue of limited bed spaces particularly in tertiary health institutions would be a thing of the past if health facilities would synergise to strengthen the referral system such that patients would be properly referred prior to notifications.
The LUTH CMD decried lapses in the medical referral system among hospitals, saying that many secondary and primary healthcare facilities, including private hospitals, didn’t follow the due processes of medical referral system.
Adeyemo said that this often resulted in poor outcomes of health emergency responses, as well as rejection of patients because the available facilities/bedspace were apparently occupied by other patients dully on admission.
According to him, some hospitals refer patients without making necessary contacts and communications with the tertiary health institutions to ascertain their readiness to handle the health emergency.
He said that there was a limit to what a tertiary hospital such as LUTH could take in consideration of its personnel and available facilities.
The CMD emphasised the need for hospitals to follow due process of medical referral system by contacting the tertiary health institutions particularly before referring patients to the hospital.
He said this was imperative to enable the hospital to prepare and be ready to receive the patient and prevent situations where the patient would be rejected due to lack of a bed space or facilities needed for his or her treatment.
“Unfortunately, a lot of hospitals dump patients on us without due verification, notification or communication to ascertain the hospital’s readiness to receive the patient.
“Sending a patient with just a referral letter is not enough.
“There is need to always call the hospital, informing it about the patient to be referred and probably get its approval on phone before sending the patient across.
“There is a limit to what we can do, considering the number of personnel and facilities on ground,” Adeyemo said.
Contributing, the Medical Director, National Orthopedic Hospital, Igbobi, Dr Wakeel Lawal, said the issue of bedspace had been a long time big dynamic challenge across public hospitals in Lagos State.
Lawal attributed the situation to the increasing population of the state, which was currently over 23 million people.
Highlighting measures that could be introduced to salvage the situation, Lawal urged Lagosians to change their health seeking behaviours.
He underscored the need for residents to develop the habit of seeking healthcare early when their health conditions had not escalated into emergency situation.
“With the increasing population of Lagos State, a lot of people may need hospital admission at the same, leading to persistent lack of bed spaces at one point or the other.
“However, people should change their healthcare seeking behaviour; they should not wait or allow their health situation to reach critical emergency condition before seeking care.
“This is necessary to avert deaths and fatalities resulting from untimely attended emergency conditions due to limited bed spaces in the public hospitals,” Lawal said.
