News: How we treated Ebola patients with no drugs or vaccines – Prof. Akin Osibogun, CMD, LUTH

Outgoing Chief Medical Director (CMD) of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Professor Akin Osibogun has revealed that the recent Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in Nigeria was the most challenging national emergency he has had to handle in his eight years as head of the hospital. A former official of World Health Organisation (WHO), the soft-spoken Osibogun also opened up on how his team and other health officials had to treat Nigerians who were infected with the deadly virus with no drugs or vaccines.
In this chat with Femi Babafemi and two others, Prof Osibogun explained that the battle against Ebola became more challenging when some of his staff had to abscond while some were threatened with divorce by their spouses. He spoke further on this and his total turn-around of the fortune of LUTH to a world class health institution during his eight-year sojourn as CMD which ends on October 10. 

Excerpts:

Having been Chief Executive of LUTH for eight years, do you feel fulfilled?

First, I will like to thank the Almighty God who has been able to uphold me for those eight years. It has not been an easy assignment but through the grace of God, one has been able to record some landmark achievements in the place. I think it is a unique opportunity and I thank my country for giving me the opportunity to serve because there are many qualified people but my country has given me an opportunity to demonstrate my ability and make my contributions to its development.
So, I feel fulfilled. 
What are those things you have achieved that bring this feeling of fulfillment?

When I became the CMD, I had a clear idea in my mind of what needed to be done in terms of re-positioning. In fact, in my letter of appointment in 2006, Mr. President gave me the challenge of turning the hospital around in two years. That in itself speaks volume be- cause there was an acknowledgement that the hospital was down and that was why Mr. president demanded of me to turn the place around within two years as clearly stated in my letter of appointment.
My assessment is that you are running a system and what constitutes a system, you need equipment, you need infrastructure, you need men and women who have capability and you need defined processes to be able to get desired out- comes. So, with that in my mind, I set out as a major objective to revamp the infrastructure and re-equip the institution. I was fortunate that the Federal Government at that point had a re-engineering program for some teaching hospitals inclusive of LUTH.
Read the full interview HERE