The Chief Medical Director, University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan Professor Temitope Alonge, in marking his one year in office has inaugurated  a 24 - hour helpline for members of the public where they can  call doctors for medical advice in case of illness or emergencies.

According to Professor Alonge, the hospital’s helpline, 0700UCHhelp, had 30 lines and were being manned by medical doctors and information technology experts with telephony options who would in turn coordinate the phone calls.

The bone surgeon, who stated that the initiative which was fully funded by the hospital was limited for now, stated that the initiative is intending to dovetail into offering ambulance services that could  pick up clients who needed to be managed in the hospital when the service received external funding.

The CMD, who remarked that his administration’s vision was to ensure a rebirth of excellence in the hospital, stated that the hospital had invested heavily in acquisition of modern laboratory and medical (theatre) equipment as well as commenced e-radiology, e-laboratory and e-pharmacy, all in a bid to better serve its clients.

He stated: “we have embraced e-radiology to ease and enhance surgical operations in the hospital. The e-laboratory and e-pharmacy have been completed to augment the e-registration module which has been up and running for six months now. Every patient that has registered in the hospital for the past six months have their data captured electronically and stored in a safe file.”

He stated that when the clinic modules are completed, the doctor who wants to see a patient could easily down load the patient’s case note and enter his or her  own information after attending to the patient, thus reducing the bulk of case notes.

 The CMD  attributed  the benefits of the hospital’s introduction of IT to its services to include a reduction in misinterpretation or misrepresentation of laboratory findings and missing of patients’ case notes, better pharmaceutical services as well as enhanced surgical operations without recourse to taking X-ray films to theatre.

The bone expert, who expressed the alarm over the increasing cases of cardiovascular diseases, especially stroke among young Nigerians, stated that the hospital was  faced with challenges such as inadequate funding and poor attitude of some contractors.

The hospital, which was adjudged the best in the country, based on the Scimago world ranking of higher educational institutions, he declared, was considering the establishment of a separate and independent stroke unit to treat patients.

Professor Alonge, who stated  that a total of 451 medical and allied staff were employed in the last one year by the hospital, also announced the commencement of operations of UCH Ventures, an outfit set up to generate alternative revenue for the health institution.

In 2011, the hospital treated 10,630 patients in the accident and emergency units, with 70 per cent being accident-related and between five to 10 per cent arising from firearm injuries.

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