Fire: LUTH relocates patients

The management of Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), on Friday said alternative arrangements have been made for patients seeking care at the burnt AIDS Prevention Initiative in Nigeria (APIN) clinic.

The clinic was gutted by fire Thursday night. It destroyed a section of the hospital.

Mrs Hope Nwawolo, Coordinator, Corporate Services of LUTH, made this known on behalf of Prof. Akin Oshibogun, Chief Medical Director.

Nwawolo, however, dismissed the reports that 35 babies were trapped in the inferno, saying that no life was lost and that only the APIN clinic was affected by the fire.

She said that the children’s ward and Directly Observed Treatment Shortcourse (DOTS) centres of the hospital were not affected by the inferno.

LUTH has already relocated the patients of the burnt clinic to a makeshift facility beside it.

Canopies and chairs were provided for the administration of drugs and treatment of the patients, in order not to disrupt the normal activities of Friday clinic.

Nwawolo said that though hard copies of the patients’ records could not be retrieved from the rubble, the electronic backups were intact.

She regretted that the hospital had lost research works of many years to the inferno, adding that the loss could not be quantified.

“We cannot put a cost on research materials of so many years or the equipment.

“The management has yet to evaluate the total cost of things that were lost.

“Though, we have electronic backup of the patients’ records, we cannot deny the fact that we have lost some important documents to the fire,” she said.

The spokesperson for the CMD said that the incident would not affect the clinical services, adding, “all patients accessing drugs at the centre will continue to get their drugs free of charge,”.

She appealed to the patients to understand the situation on ground and bear with the management, promising that critically ill patients would be referred to the Accident and Emergency unit of the hospital.

The APIN clinic, which was built years ago as orthopedic unit, was later expanded and converted to an HIV/AIDS treatment and research facility centre.(NAN)