Epidemic looms at LASUTH, facility fast deteriorating as toilets metamorphose into breeding ground for diseases
The LASUTH Sanwo-Olu will inherit from Ambode
The toilet system is totally in a state of disrepair, calling for urgent attention to avert a looming epidemic. It was so messy that it would pass as breeding ground for cholera and other diseases associated with unkempt toilets. We sought to hear from the authority. The public relations officers in LASUTH were not forthcoming
Emmanuel Ukudolo l Saturday, April 27, 2019
IKEJA, Lagos, Nigeria – On May 29, 2019, governor-elect of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu will be sworn in. But not many will envy him based on the volume of work that lies ahead of him – a terrifying traffic gridlock, courtesy cab drivers, okada riders, and tricyclists who have become either numb or averse to orderliness due to lawlessness that has in the past four year become a routine in Lagos.
Doctors attending to patient in one of the departments 
The frontage of the BT complex now exposed to the rain 
The wash area in the public toilet
He also has to contend with blocked drainages, unprecedented potholes, dysfunctional Independent Power Plants(IPP) myriads of uncompleted projects, poorly motivated civil servants including their Permanent Secretaries, comatose Bus Rapid Transit System(BRT), and worst of all a very poor and scandalous state of healthcare in Lagos state.
Unfortunately, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode did not meet Lagos this way. A flourishing Lagos megacity that is working and almost on autopilot was bequeathed by his predecessor and current Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola. But Ambode seems to have allowed pre-election vendetta to get the better part of him. He refused to let go, jettisoning the warning and wise words of of Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu not to go to State House with vendetta.
But all that is now history, and Governor Akinwunmi Ambode is now best placed to advise anybody about the consequence of vendetta. For this reason, all the projects Fashola left uncompleted, like the massive whitehouse at Alausa that is supposed to house all government parastatals and agencies is today still uncompleted after 4 years in the saddle. The Lagos Metroline project, (Red Line, Agbado to Marina and the Blue Line, Marina to Okokomaiko) have been abandoned. The projected 10 Lanes Lagos Badagry expressway is not only derelict, but in the most unfortunate state, forcing many to abandon relatives living in the axis. But it will be worst by July when the heavy storms and associated rains are expected to pound this aquatic state.
All the six IPPs, (Akute Power Plant, with total capacity of 12.16MW, Lagos Island IPP with 10MW capacity, Alausa IPP, 10.6 megawatt, Lagos mainland, 8.8 megawatts,(Ikeja GRA) and Lekki Peninsula IPP, 6.5 megawatts) that were working and when Fashola was leaving are virtually non-existent due to lack of gas to power them. Already, the news is all over town that Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has refused to buy gas to power them, leaving hospitals, the state high courts and police formations at the mercy of EKEDC.
Worst hit is the flagship health facility, the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital. Six years ago, LASUTH was almost shoulder level with the likes of Saint Nicholas, Lagoon Hospital and Eko Hospital but not anymore, even with the just commissioned Ayinke House.
The Ayinke House was then in terrible shape fueling debate whether to implode it, , build another or simply carry out renovation. But Fashola came out with the massive BT Paediatric Complex. It was a masterpiece well equipped with dozens of incubators for babies and other equipment to make the place conducive for mother and child after delivery. The only minus was lack of laboratory to carry out required test in the same complex for accurate result. The Mainland IPP in the old secretariat, GRA was set up to power the whole of LASUTH, the Lagos High Courts, and the Police College. Fashola also started the process of decommissioning generators since the IPPs succeeded in restoring steady power supply, most especially to LASUTH and environs.
But today, LASUTH is in a pathetic state, no light, although it is linked to the Mainland IPP, failure to purchase gas has made the IPP useless, forcing departments to resort to generators, from the big industrial generator to the small household regenerators which now dott the frontage of the general pharmacy in the complex. The facilities are deteriorating, due to lack of maintenance, suggestions boxes have been turned upside down, due to lack of supervision, no constant water supply to the toilets in the wards, making it difficult to make use of the toilets . Besides the physical structures that is fast deteriorating, the plastic decorations at the entrance that shields the patients from the rain once driven in by an ambulance are no more.
The public toilets are in a sorry state, much like an epidemic waiting to happen in the hospital. Our correspondent paid a visit to the public toilet at the side of the BT Paediatric Complex what he saw was nothing but an eyesore for a flagship hospital like LASUTH. The wash hand basins are not functioning, the white tiles are turning gray, with floor tiles broken in several spots, with massive water around the wash area, discouraging anybody hard pressed from contemplating going in to the facility. Our correspondent who was terribly pressed dared to go in, his pair of shoes was soaked, from one cubicle to the other, the toilet seats were soaked with balls of human faeces floating, almost cascading out of the seats. He fled and held himself till he got home. The sewage appears to have been blocked. The toilet system is totally in a state of disrepair, calling for urgent attention to avert a looming epidemic.
It was so messy that it would pass as breeding ground for cholera and other diseases associated with unkempt toilets. We sought to hear from the authority. The public relations officers in LASUTH were not forthcoming. When they did, they requested for a letter that would pass through bureaucratic approval before we could see the Chief Medical Director, Professor A.O Fabamwo.
Our correspondent called the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, he spoke for a while and said he is not able to react on phone and gave starconnectmedia.com an appointment for 4pm on Thursday, April 25, 2019. Our correspondent was in his office by 3:45 PM and was the only visitor in the waiting room. He waited till 5 pm only for one of the aides to Dr. Idris to intimate our correspondent that the commissioner is unable to attend to him. At the commissioner’s request, our correspondent dropped his phone number for another appointment, but they never got back to us.
On public toilets, the U.S Department of health has itemised the following as disease that can be picked from a damaged or malfunctioning toilets. The diseases are salmonellosis, shigellosis, diarrhoea, trachoma and melioidosis among others.
“These disease-causing germs and parasites can be spread:directly by people coming into contact with sewage or toilet waste (this can happen, for example, when people walk through sewage which has leaked onto the ground from broken sewage pipes)indirectly by people:coming into contact with animals such as flies and cockroaches which carry the germs and parasites in or on their bodies”, the department said and suggested good maintenance practice as the only way to avoid these diseases.
