Morenike Adebowale, an information technologist, delivered her third child at the popular Ayinke House, the maternity wing of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, Ikeja, Lagos, towards the end of last year, and was full of complaints not only about the congestion in the wards and lack of sense of urgency on the part of the nurses in attending to patients, but also about the general state of the hospital. “The inside of the hospital is horrible. Apart from the fact that the ward is overcrowded, you need to see the walls; they are always damp and turning greenish. In fact the entire environment is enough for the growth of infection,” she lamented.
The general belief that Ayinke House is the only place where one could have access to first-class services in obstetrics and gynecology, Obs & Gyn, for which it was built, explains the daily heavy traffic of both pregnant women and new mothers to the place for antenatal and post-natal attention.
Jaiyeola Olagunju, a teacher who lives in Ajegunle, a Lagos suburb by the border between Lagos and Ogun states along Sango-Ota Road, said she had all her six children at Ayinke House. “Because I believe that is where I can get the best medical attention. Although the place is going bad for lack of maintenance, and the facilities are becoming inadequate due to increasing population, I endured the inconveniences and had all my children there,” she told the magazine.
To say that the maternity facility is over-used is an understatement; it has been grossly over-stretched beyond its capacity. Ayinke House has 149 beds for mothers and the same number of cots for newborns in all, with six delivery wards, a general post natal ward, and three other amenity wards. In spite of the available bed space, it was a serious battle for women delivered of babies at the hospital to get spaces to rest and recuperate after childbirth as expectant mothers or their relations had to ‘tip’ officials on duty to secure spaces to rest before they are discharged.
Despite the deteriorating condition, patronage kept increasing by the day. The toilets and other conveniences became overstretched and no one thought of maintaining it or giving the walls a facelift. Gradually, it began to show signs of degeneration with the walls in constant state of dampness and the plumbing works almost giving way.
An insider told the magazine that it got this bad because many people fail to understand that the facility was meant only for referral cases. “It was not meant for general maternity services. People are supposed to be attending antenatal in health centres and government hospitals in their areas, and are to be referred to Ayinke House only when there is a problem or when it is envisaged that there might be some complications during delivery. This is why we have world-class equipment and best hands in Obs and Gyn here. But rather than go to government hospitals near them, they will come to Ayinke House and of course, they cannot be turned back, they have to be attended to, hence the problem,” he explained.
The derelict state and the growing inadequacy of the facility were noticed by the state government and effort has been made and arrangement is being concluded to upgrade the status after 20 years of neglect. Femi Olugbile, c chief medical director, CMD, LASUTH, had hinted on the plan for a new Ayinke House but was sceptical about whether it was going to be rebuilt or renovated. “I don’t know if the hospital will be demolished, all I know is that there is going to be a new Ayinke House,” he said.
Nurdeen Olowopopo, chairman, LASUTH Management Board, who passed on recently, had said the present condition of the maternity does not befit the status envisaged by Mobolaji Bank Anthony, the visionary philanthropist, who built and donated the centre to the government for the benefit of the people. In line with the importance which the Lagos State government under Babatunde Fashola, attached to quality health care services, Olowopopo had said that “the old edifice will be coming down soon to be replaced by a new ultra-modern multi-storey building. The name Ayinke House will be retained in memory of Sir Mobolaji Bank Anthony.”
The state ministry of health, the hospital’s supervising agency, revealed that the government considered the two options to establish the one that would be more cost effective. “The government was trying to weigh the two options, whether to knock it down and rebuild from foundation or to renovate the structure,” an official of the ministry who spoke under anonymity told the magazine. He, however, said the government had eventually decided on rebuilding as “it was discovered to be the best option.”
Jide Idris, commissioner for health, also said recently that the government discovered that rebuilding the facility would be more cost effective than the earlier plan to refurbish it. “We are build building a new Ayinke House. But we don’t want to create a vacuum in the process of construction. So, we shall soon commission some alternative centres where staff will be posted to meet the needs of the public in the interim,” Idris stated.
Feelers from the hospital gave credence to what Idris said as it was gathered that registration of new patients was stopped with effect from March 1,2010, while all staff and old patients would be relocated to the newly commissioned maternal and child care centres in Isolo, Ifako Ijaiye and Ikorodu. Evacuation of the patients and staff was meant to have been completed before end of March for demolition to commence at the end of the month. But as at the time of filling this report last weekend, evacuation process had not began as patients were still being attended to.
As efforts were being made to establish the fact about the situation, it was discovered that government has made a U-turn, shelving the earlier decision to demolish and rebuild, but is now going to “renovate and extend” the structure. According a source in LASUTH, it is going to be extended to accommodate more people. Information provided on an old signpost erected in front of the derelict edifice however, named Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Limited as the sponsor of the refurbishment while it named the architects and project managers as A.T. Onajide Architects Limited. All efforts to get the CMD of LASUTH to shed light on the reversal and what form the refurbishing would take proved abortive. Several phone calls were not answered, text messages were not replied and he was said to be unavailable when his office was visited.
Even though it has remained standing for 20 years now, the Ayinke House was to have had some structural defects during construction which is said to be part of what is responsible for its present physical state. Structural engineers and building experts have, however, observed that it would be in the best interest of both government and people of the state for the place to be demolished and be rebuilt.
“When you are talking of cost effectiveness, it is more cost effective to rebuild it than to renovate it because I myself have seen it as it is now, the structure is weak. So to do a good job that will befit the status of Lagos, especially in the spirit of the infrastructural renewal programme of Governor Fashola, it is better for the Ayinke House to be rebuilt completely,” a Lagos-based structural engineer told the magazine.
The Ayinke House was officially opened and commissioned on April 14, 1990 by former military president, Ibrahim Babangida. The edifice was built to international standard in Obs and Gyn in memory of Rabiat Ayinke Aleshinloye-Williams Qudus, alias Olorunkemi by her son, Mobolaji Bank-Anthony as annex of the Lagos General Hospital, Ikeja.
Ayinke House: To be upgraded by government
Olugbile: Sceptical about plans to rebuild the hospital
Idris: We are building a new Ayinke House |
