I am working to change people’s perception about UCH – CMD, Otegbayo

The Chief Medical Director(CMD), University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Professor Abiodun Otegbayo, on Friday said the focus of his administration is to change people’s perception about the hospital, stressing that patients’ comfort and workers’ welfare are important to ensure that the hospital renders optimal services.

The CMD stated this during a press conference inside the YCH boardroom to mark the 100 days of his administration in office.

Otegbayo said he wants patients to have pleasant experience when they visit the hospital.

He said: “The two focal areas of this administration is patient comfort and staff welfare. So my targets are along the line of making patients comfortable to make sure their experience when they come to see us is pleasant and they can recommend us.

“I want a situation where the phobia people have for UCH would not be there. Any in-patient coming from Igbo Oloyin or Ode Olo would not need to know anybody to access our service and get optimal service. That bothers me a lot because a number of people will say they don’t want to come to UCH.

“Even when I was practicing fulltime as a clinician, a lot of our patients will come to me that they want to see me but they don’t want to come to UCH asking to see us elsewhere. I will say no and that saddens my heart and many times they go elsewhere.

“This is not good for our image, so we want our public perception to improve and that is why we are putting all these policies in place, training and retraining our staff and letting them know the position of management on issues.”

The CMD identified staff attitude and funding as the major challenges confronting the hospital, stating that his administration is trying to address the two major issues.

“The major challenge is staff attitude because when our staff are doing their own bit everyone in his/her own micro environment, if he/she is doing his/her best, then the hospital will be known for the best but unfortunately we have a few but I must emphasise that most of our staff are doing well.

“ They are working effectively but you know the saying that it is one slave that made them to blame 200 slaves. So those few apples have spoilt the whole basket of apples and it is a major headache but we are addressing it.

“One other major challenge is that of funding. We have not been able to secure adequate funding from our principals. A lot of things we have to do requires money and that’s why I have made frantic efforts to visit a number of high net worth individuals to appeal to them to support UCH financially and materially so that our services can run and be at par with tertiary health institutions in Europe and North America because it is the dream of this administration to get UCH to a level of great tertiary hospital. And before we can get to the great level, we must have satisfied the requirements of tertiary hospitals which we have not done.

“So what we are doing now is to build the hospital to an optimal status of a tertiary hospital and we move on from that to ascend to a great level.”

Otegbayo commissioning the cash and carry pharmacy

Speaking at the commissioning of the newly built cash and carry pharmacy, Otegbayo said the need to generate funds for the hospital prompted his administration to build the pharmacy store.

“There is a need to generate funds for this hospital because funding for teaching hospitals have dwindled over the years,” he said.

Also speaking, the Director of Pharmacy, UCH, Helen Oduntan, stated that the need to improve the hospital’s internally generated revenue and ensure the availability of drugs made the opening of the new pharmacy store an important project.

“We saw the need to Improve on our internally generated funds and the drug revolving fund is a viable means of generating funds for the hospital .

“So this unit is now open to maximise our profit, ensure availability of drugs without compromising on the quality of care that we provide for our patients. So patients who come here are expected to pay for their medication.”

The newly open cash and carry pharmacy

Otegbayo used the occasion to reel out the achievements of his administration in his first 100 days in office.

He mentioned the construction and equipping of a cash and carry pharmacy store; acquisition of some laboratory and theater equipments; construction of a Christian welfare house; setting up of theater, ward and clinic management committees to make the experience of patients better; granting of welfare loans without interest to members of staff, approval of study leave with payment of salary on short term basis and training and retraining of staff members.