TO herald his second term in office as the Chief Medical Director of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Professor Abdulwaheed Olatinwo has promised that the hospital will by August this year record its first ever Open Heart Surgery.

  Already, the hospital had during his first tenure recorded his first feat in the area of kidney transplant on a man in his early 30s simply identified as Momah. The renal transplant was made possible when Momah’s younger brother donated one of his kidneys.

  Momah, residing in Lagos but an indegene of Edo State, some 30 months after the operation, told The Guardian in a chat few days ago that, “I am healthier now. All the symptoms I used to see before the operations have all disappeared, I am grateful to God and the UITH. I now live a normal health.”

  On the proposed Open Heart Surgery, Olatinwo, who described the staff of the hospital as “dedicated and professional personnel” said the process, would commence without any postponement as the required procedures have been perfected and needed facilities made available.

  He added, “we will do this in partnership with some other health institutions. This Open Heart Surgery will definitely take place by August this year according to our plans.”

  Speaking on his other plans for the hospital and its staff in the next four years, the hospital boss whose second term in office commences in March this year said he would make staff development the kernel of his policies.

  “We will like to re-position the staff and support them to their full capacity. This will make them to operate at the highest level attainable on their duty posts. We want to concentrate more on ICT especially in the area of health care delivery. This will meet up with our vision, which is Total Quality Health Care for Patients’ Satisfaction. This is our one plan, to make the hospital a one-stop-hospital.”

Bone marrow transplant

  Already, the UITH has started the process on Bone Marrow Transplantation, this will have to do with Sickle Cell Anaemia cases. Olatinwo added, “we want to concentrate our gains on the Renal Transplant. The first and the last in the history of this hospital was carried out on a patient some two and a half years ago and till date, the patient is still alive. We are monitoring him. We want to consolidate on the renal success hence we want to enter into a partnership with an Australian hospital. The service will be a good one for those suffering renal related cases in our country.”

  One major area of concerns to Olatinwo is the constant traffic hold up along Ilorin/ Jebba Road, which till date remains the sole motorable road into the UITH. Even though the Kwara state government had recently extended the single lane road, the congestion persists. Vehicles still move at snail speed on the road. Olatinwo told The Guardian that a high powered committee of the hospital had been constituted to proffer solutions to the traffic hiccups.

According to him. “Since we are on essential services to the people and people move in and out patients from the hospital, we can’t take lightly the issue of free flow of traffic on the road leading to the hospital. Therefore, we are planning a consultancy unit, to be run separately from the hospital on this issue. It will be a complete independent unit.”

  Already, workers of the hospital are celebrating the second coming of Olatinwo, describing it as the best thing that could have happened to the hospital.

  According to the Chairman of the Task force on Open Heart Surgery, Professor Olanrewaju Adedoyin, it was a well-deserved appointment attributed to the monumental achievement of the hospital boss during his first tenure in office.

  One thing that impressed Adedoyin on Olatinwo’s style of administration was his ability to attarct private individuals to donate to the hospital, because of his belief that the issue of health should not be the exclusive duty of the governments.

  He said of Olatinwo, “he must have deserved the second term appointment before he was given. His contributions to the development of the hospital were no doubt great and he did it with great passion. He sourced for funds for the hospital outside the government’s subventions.

  “The paediatric clinic currently under construction was donated by an unknown donor courtesy, Professor Olatinwo. Besides, the CMD built offices for consultants; he brought in Mallam Ola- olu Ali, a Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court, who donated to the hospital, an ultra modern trauma centre. The Senator representing Kogi South Senatorial district, Smart Adeyemi recently donated to the UITH a brand new fully equipped ambulance.  He relocated the entire sections of the UITH to the hospital’s permanent site.

  “This administrator per excellence, ensured that the maternity wing of the former hospital building given to the UITH under a lease agreement with the Kwara state government, was retained by the UITH even after the total relocation to the permanent site. Today, the premises is retained as the School of Health Records, the first of its kind under the tenureship of any CMD of this teaching hospital.

Downside of the administration

  Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar of Works Department, while congratulating Olatinwo over his second term appointment, rated him low in the area of lighting the hospital. 

  “If you have reason to come here in the night you will see that darkness usually envelope some sections of the hospital, he can do something about it. Light is very essential in the hospital. However, this has nothing to do with generating set, we constantly have that in operation but I am talking of frequent changes of burnt out bulbs, especially those built as security light.”

  Besides, a mortuary attendant, who clamoured for anonymity citing civil service procedures, believed that the road leading to the mortuary should be tarred noting that the bad nature of the road is allegedly making it difficult for pallbearers and the owners of corpses to collect them. 

  Dele Olojede, an administrative staff said management should regulate the number of commercial vehicles that ply the hospital “for effective checks and control over them. This will make the road more orderly.”

  For Adedoyin, Olatinwo ensured great services improvement during his first tenure. At no time did the alternative system to power generation collapse, despite the huge cost of daily purchase of diesel. He added, “he was prudent in spending the resources of the hospital, although this might not have gone down well with some people. But generally speaking, there was industrial peace throughout this period under a review. This could be due to periodic open forum between the management and all categories of workers of the hospital. Where a particular staff could not openly ask questions such were written on papers and passed on to the CMD or whosoever was presiding.”

  Said Olatinwo on the open forum initiative: “the idea of the Open Forum with our staff came up after all manners of passing information from the management to the staff seemed to have failed. The passing of instructions through the Heads of Department (HODs), did not work out either. Then we experimented with the direct quarterly forum, where everybody asked questions and received instant answers to them. This has no doubt helped in reducing strikes by any union at the hospital. In fact, it is safer to conclude that apart from national strikes, we don’t go on strike here.”

  For the Head of Department of Ophthalmology of the UITH, Dr. Mrs. Dupe Popoola, Olatinwo’s second coming would no doubt place the hospital among the very best in the country, especially in the areas of compliance with modern trends of management and efficient service delivery system.

  Popoola observed, “I surely believe that his second term ticked is a well deserved one, because he has great visions for the hospital. He had always been talking of building a hospital for the future and right now, the future is here. It is good that he has this chance to consolidate on what he had started.”

  For the predecessor of Olatinwo, Professor Suleiman Kuranga, his successor has truly moved forward the visions of the founding fathers of the hospital even as he described him as a misunderstood administrator.

   “Olatinwo is a misunderstood character, but despite that, he continues to do his very best making sure that the flag of the hospital is flying high. The system seems not to have understood him. But as he was winding up his first tenure, I think the workers started appreciating better his contributions. He will surely continue to put the UITH on a great pedestal.”

  One personality, who appreciates Olatinwo is the pioneer boss of ICPC, Justice Mustapha Akanbi rtd. According to the former President of the Court of Appeal, “no CMD would use his personal money to develop government hospital. I think he has tried his best for the UITH but I believe the-Federal-Government-owner should pump in more money into the health sector, because health is wealth.”

  In his own remarks, the Chairman, Kwara state Chapter of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) Professor Olayinka Buhari, went down the memory lane, describing Olatinwo has a “master builder,” who though met the UITH at a deplorable state but had transformed the fortune within four years to an excellent one.

  Buhari, a Professor of Pathology said, “we are very happy that President Jonathan has given Olatinwo the ticket to preside over the affairs of this hospital for another term. When he started some four years ago, the situation of the hospital was terrible, but today, four years down the line, things have greatly improved. We pray that by the time he completes the second term, it will be better again.”

  An Administrative staff under condition of anonymity would want the management to boost allowances of staff on “overtime working situation,” noting that the development would enhance efficient service delivery.

  For now all stakeholders of the teaching hospital are waiting with bated breadth for Olatinwo’s performance in the next four years.