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1HE GUARDIAN, Sunday, Februi!I)'20,2011
The LASUTH Of My Dream -ByOl<e Consultant Physician and Cardiologist, Prof. David Ade- very economic prize. If you go to India the cost is huge and totally out of reach in wale Oke, last week assumed duty as the new Chief America. So, we want to bring those techMedical Director of Lagos State University Teaching nologies here. I wanno make sure that Hospital (LASUTH). His appointment by Governor Balagosians can access any medical intervenbatunde Fashola stems from optimism that he would tion that they require. We do not want to bring his distinguished working career to bear on LAwatch our people die because they cannot SUTH and drive it up the rungs of leading teaching hos- afford the cost of medical care. pitals in the country. How will he achieve this? Oke How do you explaIn the Idea ofbrlnlting In foreign experts when the Idea shouIa be Inshares with WaLE OYEBADE. Excerpts: dlgenlsatlon of expertise? You are resuming duty at another trying time for let me paint a scenario. If I need to do five heaIthcare In the state. How Is LASUfH coping knee surgeries and I send the five to India, it with the doctors' strike? is going to cost me certain amount of The situation is indeed a challenge and our immoney. But If I get one surgeon from India mediate plan is to keep the medical emergency to come to LASUfH, perform the operation services functional, while the State government here. then we are reducing the cost burden resolves issues with the doctors. We are collaboon the patients. In the same process, we get rating with doctors from the private sector as an about four or five residents to assist the exemergency response to the plight of Lagosians. pert, which is capacity building. Commissioner for Health, Dr. lide Idris was here LASUTH now prides itself with indigenous to identify areas of utmost need. It is obvious we cardiac mission team being the first in have to send doctors to the eye clinic. At the inNigeria with more successful open-heart ception of this strike, we thought we would just surgeries. That is why we need those people. deploy to medical and surgical emergency. But We are not inviting them to come and set now, we also have to focus on ophthalmology. up a parallel hospital. But just to bring their Actually, we met with the executive members of expertise to develop our own capacity. That the Association of General and Private Medical is why we said that instead of referral to Practitioners of Nigeria (AGMPN) and they are India. The process cost far less, trains our going to take a list of doctors who are interested, residents who will become consultants and and give them to the commissioner who will de- also train others. ploy these doctors to the identified areas of lbe cost of diagnosis at the Bola Tlnubu (BT) need. The deployment is a temporary appointDiagnosis Centre Is still high and beyond ment to look after the stranded patients with the reach of average Nigerians. Is this not a emergency conditions and red uce the suffering negation of affordable health care that IAof Lagos population_ 50, we are on top of the silu- SUfH should represent? ation. The BT diagnostics centre is equipped with What Is the cost of doctors strike In Lagos and world class and state-of-the-art equipment what are you doing to ensure that It Is a thing of being run on a public private participatory the past? level. We are usmg them now because we To Msess the cost is an understatement. Past in- have some challenges with out laboratory. dustrial actions have cost the hospital enorThe laboratory is currently rehabilitated. mously.lt was not intended by the hospital . We cannot really control the charges, management but a labour problem that went be- though we can but not to the extent that yond what the hospital could do. We also tried they will run the centre at a loss. many times to get some of the doctors to work That is what is happening right now but it but because of the politics that was Impossible. is going to be short-lived. As soon as we sort Presently, I am still going round to see if there out our laboratories problems, everything are other areas of need that we can deploy the will revert to status quo. That place was set doctors. The strike came suddenly. We are doing up for those who can afford it, but we have what we can to stem the tide of people dying. to use it temporarily since we do not want Then, we can sit down with the management to refer patients outside the hospital for laband see how we can also arrange to follow up pa- oratory services. The cost is definitely comtients. However, the Governor is currently sortpetitive with those that are outside. ing out the issues and that is why we are here. What Is the current state of the obstetrics We hope that it will be a short strike to end all and gynaecologywlng (popularly known as strike. Aylnke Housel, and where are you taking it? What Is your dream for LASlJlH? Ayinke House is the major maternity and My dream is to raise the standard of this hospireferral centre, where outpatients must tal to a level where referrals abroad will become pass through. It is currently under cona thing of the past. As a cardiologist, some 10 struction and expansion by the State govyears ago, there are ailments that cannot be aternment. tended to. You will diagnose the ailment and The good news is that the work has already sometimes you are frustrated because you only started; the contractors are on ground and watch the patent die. All you can render is to give it is expected to be completed in 18 months. them palliative treatment and then eventually, The hospital has been proactive; we are those who can afford it were sent abroad. using our outside stations to look alter paLASUTH has already established a cardiac centients. Although it is not ideal, at least we tre. We have a driving objective to become a are still providing obstetrics and gynaecoworld-class teaching hospital, using cutting edge logical services. Come April or May 2012, technology and higltly developed human reAyinke House will be bigger and better. sources to render unrivalled healthcare services to Lagosians in particular and Nigeria at large. The lagos state government has consistently invested in capacity through human and material development in the hospital. The current staff strength of the hospital is 2088. The hospital has 16 clinical departments with the critical care unit as the most effective life support facility in the country. The unit has carried out successful open-heart surgeries. . The critical care unit is acknowledged as one of the most cost effective centres in the country. The unit has also played host to interventions路
like knee replacement surgeries, cornea transplant surgeries, and limb deformity correction surgeries initiated by the Ministry of Health, Lagos state. I indeed want to move that up to the next level of international cardiology. This is very important these days because the lifestyle of most Nigerians have changed. They are now living under a very stressful condition and fast lane kind of life. My mother never knew what fast food is. More so, it is ... meal one should have once in a month but now most Nigerians have it as breakfast, lunch and supper; eating the triple disease manager: fat, salt and sugar. So, hypertension, heart diseases and heart attacks are commonplace. With intervention cardi-
ology, we don't need to open up the heart, we just go into the arteries, get into the veins and do what is necessary. You might say that these are being done in other places. But if you realise that while we have ahuge patient load, we ought to be doing it at a
Ide
Kuteyi
'Bitter, Pure Cocoa: Excellent Health Booster Untapped' That Nigerians may have improved health through functional foods, an expert in foodscience technology, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Spectra Industries Limited, Mr. Duro Kuteyl, spoke with reporters on the health benefits in eating natural farm produce. WOlE OYEBADE was there. Excerpts
A Sa manufacturer and food expert, what 拢lprompted your Interest In cocoa products and other grains? It has to do with the huge, though least understood health potentials In these wonderful natural produce. We introduced our company, Spectra, as the house of functional food - the foods that when you eat would do things like reducing the risk of contacting diseases and little attendance at the health
eases.
Cocoa intake has shown health benefits in other areas like S5 crises, ageing, neuro-<legenerative diseases, malaria, asthma and inflamma-
tion. Though, we produce cocoa to sell and we also want to make profit, the primary thing is that people should benefit health-wise from our products. Comparing the antioxidants in cocoa with the
other products. The first is chocolate where there is no milk at all; you have the antioxidant value of13,125. To see how milk has affected the availability of antioxidants in the other product, by the time milk was added, the antioxidant reduced by half. Other raw materials around are maize and soya beans. What of wheat? Nigerians eat wheat a lot. In the morningyou eat bread, in the afternoon Gala or noodles and centre. semovita at night. But all these are made from There was a cocoa festival in a South West wheat and all have Gluten composite, which is state of Nigeria sometimes ago and that was not healthy for the body. where we were asked to look into the praGluten is a protein composite that appears in duction of pure cocoa. That is how we foods processed from wheat and related started its production and it has been doing species, including barley and rye. It gives elasticwell. ity to dough, helping it to rise and to keep its When you take natural cocoa, it calms your snape, and often giving the final product a nerve, takes the sttess off you then gives you chewy texture. mental alertness. Cocoa has been proven In the past it used to be only bread that we eat good for diabetic and hypertensive patients. from wheat. But now every meal of the day,leadOnce your nerves are calm, you are able to ing to diverse accumulation of this and that dissleep, and then your blood pressure will also eases. The diseases that were unknown before come down. Doctors also recommend the are now commonplace, and we do not know intake of cocoa because it makes their job where they are coming from. We need to go easier. back to what we grow, what we have been eatCocoa is bitter because of something in it ing in the past and was not killing us. What we called alkaloids, which is colourless. It is need is to mechanise the products and not found in chocolate products and used in adding anything into it. medicine. as diuretic. Because when you
pass out urine, the tension goes down. That is why they say that it brings down blood
One of our products that are rich in yellow
maize and soya beans is Hyfiba. Another like it, though good for breakfast is Fast-o-meal also pressure. made by Spectra. It has soya bean and soya has You have vasodilators and mal路cardiac high lecithin content and is therefore excellent stimulant that are properties of the subfor mental activity and for protection against stance, theobromine, in cocoa. It is best cholesterol deposits. They are products that we tteatment (or patients that have persistent have not added anything other than vitamins cough. Cocoa has anti-asthmatic, diuretic ef- and minerals. No preservative. fects and useful in cases of heart failure and Soya bean contains proteins that are adequate some forms of hypertenSion. So. through for human being. If you eat right you will not our local foods, we can save a lot of lives. fall sick and your immunity will be very okay. ._ Are these health benefits found In all cocoa- What is the health benefit In maize? ' .. I " '. based beverages? Maize is very good for human health, as the It Is in the namral cocoa that is not mixed body takes a fraction of what is needed and alwith anything else. Not even with milk or lows the rest to pass out. The body keeps nothpreservatives; like Spectra Cocoa Powder ingthat is not needed in maize unlike in wheat. made by Spectra_Initially, we were making Maize and soya have a lot of health benefits that cocoa without knowing its uses. The White- are not yet maximized. If you eat right and food men would export our cocoa and bring bev- that is fimctional, then you will not have to eat' erages to us. And the beverages has only or much in a day, so you will save money on food. less than five per cent of cocoa, they make us Consuming purely local produce of maize and believe that it is entirely cocoa. All these bev- soya bean and products made from it is the best erages around today have very low percent- way to keep our farmers at work. We are supage of cocoa, hence cannot be desClibed as posed to be assisted by the government at all functional food. levels and their agenCies. But they are not yet The antioxidants in cocoa are also playing coming for the Small and Medium Enterprises significant role in your daily health. Cocoa (5MEs). powder and chocolate are rich sources of Challenges oflocal manufacturers In Nigeria high qualitypolyphenol antioxidants, simi- The challenges are enonnous even as governlar to those found in fruits, vegetables and ment's policies have been a major challenge. In red wine. Cocoa polyphenols were only Nigeria today, whatever rate is used as taxation thought to playa role in flavour and aroma for multinationals are also used for SMEs. When deveropment in chocolate but more recently you look at the Federal government agencies have been studied for their anti-oxidants pa- like the National Agency for Food and Drug Adtentials and possible health benefits in huministration and Control (NAFDAC). they mans. charge us the same amount as they charge the Antioxidants promote nitric-oxide produc- multinational companies too, on registration of tion in the body that helps Flow Mediated prod ucts. Why shOlild it he s07 Then you ask Dilatation (FMD), overcome erectile dysfunc- yourselves 'are SMEs realiy encouraged?' Why tional and sexual weakness. It also promotes don't the SMEs enjoy facilities like tax waiver, tax recuperation from stroke and heart disholiday or subsidies.