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BEING THE REMARKS OF THE GOVERNOR OF LAGOS STATE, MR. BABATUNDE RAJI FASHOLA, SAN ON THE OFFICIAL LAUNCHING OF THE GBAGADA CARDIAC AND RENAL CENTRE
In the course of an almost 8 (eight) years tenure of service, I have been privileged to lead a team of public servants who have given a better name to governance in our country by their commitment to confront problems, devise solutions to them and painstakingly pursue those solutions to fruition.
Five new Independent Power Plants in Akute, Lagos Island, Alausa Ikeja, Mainland GRA, and Lekki, 10 (Ten) brand new Maternal and Child Centres, with 100 beds each, a new school of Nursing in Igando Alimosho, Primary Health Care Centres in Epe with 24 hour lighting by solar, a light rail system whose construction is making progress inspite of huge odds, represent some of our problem solving interventions that have shown the difference between us and an amateurish government led by the PDP.
Today, my chest is pumped up, my head is raised, my heart is full of pride and I can say thank you, and very well done to our team, as we open the Gbagada Cardiac and Renal Hospital to serve our people.
For those who are coming here for the first time, please permit me to dimension the problems that this hospital was meant to solve.
After Governor Tinubu’s administration upgraded the Ikeja General Hospital into a teaching hospital, the place became full, with new structures built there. A critical care unit, a diagnostic centre with MRI facilities, a dental unit and many more, which compelled us to expand to Gbagada in order to provide more specialist facilities for critically ill people and to train our doctors and students.
During the 2007 campaign, one of my aides was shot by opposition thugs, he died in this hospital because it was over- crowded with burns victims who were casualties of an NNPC pipeline that exploded in Alimosho.
The Gbagada Expressway used to flood, it belongs to the Federal Government, and residents of this area of Gbagada, Medina Estate and Deeper Life all lived with fear of the rains.
That was when the Ministry of Health and Deux Project, our contractor came up with the design of this complex as an Annex to LASUTH.
At the time also, the Honourable Commissioner for Health informed me that there were up to 20,000 Nigerian medical personnel, who were living and working overseas.
Many of them who I met on my travels, complained that they wanted to come home and practice but there were no hospitals comparable to where they were accustomed to working.
I told them that we will do something.
Year on year, I watched as we exported Nigerians abroad, with family members to care for and support them; all at high cost in foreign exchange, because there was no local alternative.
Between 2008 and 2014, we sponsored very sick people overseas at tax payers’ expense. There were 42 (Forty Two) cardiac cases and 28 (Twenty Eight) renal cases that benefited from this gesture of compassion on the recommendation of the Ministry of Health.
There were also 11 (Eleven) renal cases that were State sponsored for kidney transplant, dialysis and post-transplant immunosuppressants at St. Nicholas hospital in Lagos
Some people have needlessly died abroad out of loneliness, being unable to see their loved ones around after going through complex surgeries, changing diet and eating foreign foods they were not used to, and seeing people who did not speak their language.
Yet the PDP and its Government was moving from NEEDS, to VISION 2020, to 7 Point Agenda and now to Transformation.
The turning point was when we exported President Yar’ Adua to a Saudi Arabia hospital to manage a kidney ailment.
We could have built one with all the petro dollars.
But that is not the PDP way. The Federal Government does not understand that it diminishes our image every time the head of government travels abroad for medical care.
I understand that. But I must not be mistaken for suggesting that we can have all specialties locally. But we must try.
In most other countries, the best hospitals are the Military hospitals where the President gets treatment. Nigerian Military hospitals used to be like that.
What is the ailment that a Nigerian President goes to treat abroad that a Nigerian hospital built by him cannot handle?
This hospital was started in 2008 and completed in 2013. That is 5 years, compared to the 16 (Sixteen) years of the PDP Presidency.
This failure cannot be attributed to the opposition.
Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, these were the problems we set out to overcome and I say with pride, that we have defeated the problems.
We have struck a decisive blow at them.
We could not build without solving the drainage problem, which took over a year.
Today, this area is flood free and you can ask the residents of Medina, Gbagada, and Deeper Life what their new experiences are.
We also revived the street lights poles on the Federal Government owned Gbagada Expressway which the PDP campaign team now adorns with the President’s posters asking for your votes, but they have not paid N51 billion we spent on other federal roads in Lagos.
Since we are now in the era of giving change, let me remind them that N51 billion is chicken change compared to what they have spent on TV and radio campaign propaganda.
As we prepared to complete the hospital, our contractors, Deux Project advised us to replace the asphalt on the road leading to it with concrete so that it will last long.
Their argument is that critically sick people require urgent attention and a bad road can make the difference between life and death.
Today, there is a concrete that does not need resurfacing. It will be here for at least over 50 years. Many of you drove through it to get here.
Today we have a hospital that has 24 dialysis bed stations, 20 (Twenty) beds for recovery and general ward use, 2 (Two) high dependency wards with 5 (Five) beds each, making a total of 10 (Ten) beds, for patients who have come out of intensive care, 5 (Five) beds for patients in intensive care, 4 (Four) post-surgery beds for patients who just finished surgery, 2 (Two) post cathlab beds and 2 (Two) surgical theaters built to the most contemporary standard to cater for people who are critically ill.
There are lecture rooms for students, but one of the fascinating facilities is the surgical theatre where kidneys and hearts can be removed and transplanted.
There are cameras fitted into the surgical scumps which project images and voices of what is happening in the theatre to the students lecture rooms on the ground floor.
This ensures that students can learn by seeing and hearing what is going on in the theatre without actually being in there, which ensures the sterility of the operating theatre area and prevents patients from secondary infection.
After building the hospital, the next problem was managing it.
We put out a bid on the internet and in international newspapers for concession management.
That was where we came across the Renescor Team, a multi-dimensional consortium of Nigerian and American doctors and nurses who are cardiac and kidney specialists in America.
One of their members, an American, in his presentation to us in the Executive Council had performed numerous successful heart surgeries.
This is the quality of the team that won the concession to manage and maintain this hospital for the next 5 (Five) years with a renewal option.
As at today, they have recruited 32 (Thirty Two) medical staff who are already on ground. 17 (Seventeen) are local, 8 (Eight) are Indians, 7 (Seven) are Nigerians in diaspora who returned home full time.
12 (Twelve) other Nigerians in diaspora have signed to come home here in rotation and 50 (Fifty) Nigerian specialists in diaspora would be coming on permanent rotation.
The negotiations took almost a year but they assure us first that our students and doctors will be able to train here.
They also assure me that there will be no strikes in this hospital because critically ill people will never be left alone.
They also have in their agreement, an accommodation for a quota poor people who the State will refer to them to treat for free, and when that quota is exceeded the state will pay.
Whatever we pay in future, will be cheaper than going abroad. It will not include airfare, it will not include accommodation abroad all of which are paid in dollars, and doctors’ fees and feeding costs will now be charged in Naira, in Lagos.
Therefore ladies and gentlemen, apart from solving a drainage problem, a road problem, and building a hospital we have taken a very big step in reversing human capacity flight from Nigeria and turning a brain drain into a brain gain. Nigeria medical practitioners are returning home, to practice medicine.
But this is not the end of the dream. This hospital now has the best burns unit and facilities in Nigeria, in response to the experience of severe burns that I encountered in 2007.
We are now planning to site our cancer centre in this complex if you elect an APC Government led by Akinwunmi Ambode to continue after me.
We also foresee the start of medical tourism from across West Africa into Lagos Nigeria.
So we have planned accommodation for relatives who may want to accompany their sick relations here for treatment within this complex and the land for construction and management has been set aside.
So there is opportunity for investors who propose acceptable terms within the hospitality industry to build hotel/apartments here for relatives.
In the way that we paid for accommodation for spouses or relatives of sick people to go abroad, our hospital can now earn income from the same facility and use it to run its operations, set new salaries for doctors, nurses and health workers who are willing to do the work and reduce the dependence on Government subvention.
In this way, health workers can set their own income based on work done and away from agitation for wage increase.
This is the part of the dream that I cannot complete. The road to achieving it is clear. But I am happy to see this day. We have taken the first big step. The journey can continue from here in tested and experienced hands.
I can look forward to my old age now with confidence that if anything happens to my heart or kidneys, I used my period of service to build a facility that can respond to my needs.
I know now that I will not need to go abroad because of a lack of choice. If I do so, it will be my own choice and not because the Lagos State Government failed to provide an alternative.
It remains only now for me to thank Dr. Jide Idris and the entire staff of the Ministry of Health, who designed and implemented this project, Dr. Muiz Banire, Mr. Tunji Bello of the Ministry of Environment who designed and implemented the drainage solution, and Mr. Tunji Olowolafe and Deux Project who delivered the bolts and nuts of this hospital.
To the glory of God, I now have the pleasure to declare the Gbagada Cardiac and Renal Centre open for the benefit of humanity.
May the infirmities of all those who are brought into this centre be fully cured.
Thank you for listening.
Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN
Governor of Lagos State
