As the Nigeria Center for Diseases Control confirms cases of coronavirus in six states in Nigeria, with fear that the infection could get worse, highly-placed health workers have said that Nigeria does not have up to 500 ventilators across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
GoldenNewsNg understands that hospitals in Nigeria may experience difficulties in handling seriously ill COVID-19 patients due to the lack of enough ventilators for patients’ use.
Moreso, the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, which is a federal government-owned tertiary healthcare facility, has only four ventilators.
According to a report by the Punch News Paper:
A visit to LUTH and Lagos State-owned Gbagada General Hospital on Monday showed that the hospitals are not well equipped to manage COVID-19 patients.
LUTH has only four ventilators, while Gbagada General Hospital, a major secondary health facility in the state, does not have any, our sources said.
A source at LUTH who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the hospital did not have enough ventilators to manage patients.
“I can confirm to you that we only have four ventilators in the Intensive Care Unit. Basic equipment needed to manage patients admitted at the ICU is in short supply, including ventilators.
“The coronavirus that we’re all talking about, if patients with breathing problems are brought to LUTH today, the ventilators are not there to manage them.
“The four that we have are not enough for our patients, let alone adding news ones,” the source said.
Another health worker in ICU said, “Ordinarily, a teaching hospital like LUTH, with large volume of patients and located in a thickly populated state like Lagos, should have between 50 and 100 ventilators.
“Although the problem is not associated with LUTH alone, other teaching hospitals in the country, both those owned by the federal and state governments, do not have enough ventilators.
“As I speak, Nigeria cannot boast of 500 ventilators across the 36 states and the FCT.”
While LUTH could still boast of four ventilators, Gbagada General Hospital, Lagos, has none to offer to patients with breathing problems, according to information gathered by our reporter during a visit to the hospital on Monday.
A staff at the general hospital who did not want his name in print, said what the hospital has was an anaesthetic machine and not a ventilator.
“We do not have an Intensive Care Unit for the management of patients with breathing problems, and we do not have a ventilator.
“When we have patients in need of ventilators, we refer them to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja; or LUTH.
“What we have currently is an anaesthetic machine,” our source said.
When our correspondent sent an SMS to the Medical Director of Gbagada General Hospital, Dr. Kaka Adeleke, on Monday, asking him to confirm whether or not the hospital has an ICU, he responded in a text message, “Please, all your required data are with the Federal Ministry of Health.”
The Chief Medical Director of LUTH, Prof. Chris Bode, urged our correspondent to come to his office on Tuesday when asked to state the number of ventilators the hospital has.
He refused to disclose how many ventilators are available in the tertiary hospital, saying the number was “definitely not four.”