No fewer than 150 nurses have resigned their appointments with the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) within the last three years.
The Chief Medical Director of LASUTH, Prof. Adetokunbo Fabamwo, said this during a news conference on Tuesday in Lagos.
Fabamwo said the situation arose as a result of health workers relocating abroad to practice, noting that the exit replacement strategy of the government had, however, ensured that operations weren’t disrupted at the hospital.
He added that in recent times, applications for positions of nurses and resident doctors had reduced in the tertiary hospital.
To address the challenge, Fabamwo said the hospital now recruits double qualified nurses and also engaged some retired but not tired nurses on contract basis to bridge the gaps.
On the issue of bed space management, Fabamwo said that the hospital was using a team of nurses called ‘monitoring crew’ to ensure speedy transfers of stable patients from emergency units to wards.
This, according to him, had created spaces for incoming patients.
Fabamwo disclosed that the ongoing construction of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) building with a 120-bed capacity in the hospital was at 90 per cent completion level.
He said that the SDG building would alleviate the issue of bed space constriction, enhance critical care services in the hospital and assist to reduce medical tourism in the state and country.
