Godwin Haruna
27 April 2009
analysis
Lagos — Nigerians are used to grandiose projects, which are abandoned almost immediately on completion. A look at some deteriorating public facilities in the country reveals this stark fact.
However, a refreshing change is emerging as the Lagos State government engages consultants to maintain its new look health institutions. The National Arts Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos, which was built in the run up to Nigeria's hosting of FESTAC in 1977, is an architectural master piece. It was the events manager's choice venue. The auditorium and the meeting rooms were tastily furnished in addition to other first class facilities in the complex. Today, the erstwhile pride of the nation is a shadow of its self. Leaking rooms, dropping ceilings, mal-functioning air-conditioning systems, broken furniture and over-grown weeds in the hitherto well maintained lawn are the defining features of the magnificent structure of yester-years.
The National Arts Theatre lost its beauty and pride to lack of maintenance. This is exactly what the Lagos State government is trying to guard against in its health institutions, which has undergone a lot of changes in the last few years. To ensure that the first class facilities it has spent tax payers' money to put in place are maintained, the state government has contracted Deux Projects Limited to look after them.
Speaking in an interview with journalists, Dr. Walter Olatunde, managing director, Deux Projects Limited declared that the state understands the importance of project sustainability and therefore has incorporated long term facility management agreements in all its major projects. Olatunde stated that Nigeria was littered with laudable but failed projects due to a lack of maintenance culture. According to him, training is also an extremely important integral part of building capacity to ensure that end-users are brought up-to-date on the use and care of equipment.
He said at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), the contractor initially engaged 350 cleaners to provide facility management alongside 2 expatriate hospital facility managers, 10 expatriate biomedical engineers and 15 technicians. Additionally, intensive training is being provided to all cadre of hospital staff including doctors, nurses, hospital engineers, drivers and cleaners.
"Lagos state's vision is not driven by the infrastuture but by the real impact on its citizens. This will only come through the focused and continued development of it's personnel. This is why it has been a continuous priority of the previous and the current government to develop the capacity of the state's healthcare workers and students through their instutions of learning and training. Medicine is taught at the patients bedside and therefore the importance of the state's teaching hospital can not be over-emphasized," Olatunde stressed.
He said former Lagos State governor, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu started with the rehabilitation, expansion and redevelopment of LASUTH and LASUCOM to ensure that Lagos State meets the accreditation requirements of the National Medical and Dental Council and turns out the best trained doctors in the country. The completion of the projects in 2008, he added, increased the bed capacity of LASUTH from 520 to 770. He added that there was need to ensure that such improved facilities are optimally used for the benefit of the citizenry through routine maintenance.
Also speaking during the interview, Mr. Dennis Stokell, facilities general manager for Deux Projects Limited stated that the maintenance of the strauctures entail such aspects as biomedical repairs and maintainance, electrical repairs and maintenance, plumbing repairs and maintenance, carpentry, furniture repairs and manufacturing, aircondition repairs (maintenance and installation). Other aspects include television and microwave repairs, painting, garden maintenance and landscaping, cleaning, building works and repairs, generator supply, servicing and fuelling.
"With the commencement of the rehabilitation of facilities at LASUTH, Lagos State ensured that facility management was an essential component of the contract. This has been provided by the contractor carrying out the rehabilitation," Stokell stated.
Olatunde added that since inception of facilities management at LASUTH in 2005, the facilities have increased exponentially to what now comprises a compliment of 471 cleaners, technicians and supervisory staff, covering all aspects of building maintenance, repairs and cleaning.
According to the facilities manager, the cleaning staff are provided with equipment, machinery, consumables, uniforms and deployed throughout LASUTH to provide a 24-hour cleaning service to all wards, medical emergency, surgical emergency, morbid anatomy, out-patient department, theatre, dental clinic, physiotherapy, hematology, pharmacy, paediatrics, eye clinic and Ayinke House. Other areas, he mentioned include support service areas, generators, switch rooms, gardens/landscaping and administrative areas.
Furthermore, the technical support staff which includes electricians, plumbers, biomedical technicians, welders, gardeners and generator mechanics make good and/ or repair/replace, service and maintain all damaged/broken equipment throughout the infrastructure. Other works carried out by the consultants include maintenance of roads, walkways, stormwater drains, evacuation of septic tanks, sanitation of buildings and surrounds and waterproofing of flat roofs. He stressed that special attention is given to gardens and landscaping areas as part of the beautification of the hospital in general.
Among the compliment of the staff involved in the work are expatriate and local biomedical technicians, instrumentation technicians and engineers to maintain/repair and service all hospital equipment and provide training on the use and care thereof.
"Expatriate facility managers with vast experience in providing facility management in large hospitals around the world and local maintenance managers have been employed to supervise and manage all the above staff in the day to day facility management operations. The hospital has been divided into four zones to ensure that each area is supervised and controlled by a senior team leader that assumes responsibility for their respective areas; this includes cleaning staff, supervisory staff and technical staff assigned to their specific areas of control," Olatunde stressed during the interview.
He said the procedure they follow is that daily morning meetings are conducted to ensure that all maintenance requests are followed up and action taken soonest in accordance with the job allocation and priority scheduled to each job. He said each building has a team leader who conducts daily scheduled inspections of their respective buildings to ensure that all maintenance is informed as soon as possible to conduct repairs.
He said facilities management, taken into context, covers a broad range of services that are necessary to ensure that the upkeep and maintenance of all buildings and surrounding areas are in a pristine and healthy condition for patients, staff and visitors and to ensure it does not impact negatively on the environment due to the number of people utilising the facilities.
"Response time by attending to complaints from the hospital staff and patients is a major contributing factor to the present environment of conducting feelings of getting the job done with the least amount of stress and emotional trauma, this not only reduces the stress factors to a ,minimum, but contributes to the patients quick recovery rate. With the beautification process of gardens and surrounding areas, it removes the unkempt commercial type environment into a more acceptable home setting that assists with patient recovery and family acceptance of where the patient finds himself," he said.
He said Lagos State has determined the staff compliment and deployed all the necessary personnel, equipment, consumables and routine spare parts for the efficient and professional execution of the facilities management at LASUTH to ensure that the hospital provides a clean, hygienic and safe working and recuperating environment that is conducive to patient, staff and visitors' well being.
Stokell, who is a South African said he could remain in Nigeria for as long as possible to ensure that all the facilities continue to work well. Similarly, Mr. Allan Medcraft, a Briton who is in charge of training explained that it was necessary for the general population to have basic knowledge of saving lives during emergencies. Medcraft has trained quite a sizeable number of different professionals on these issues.
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