Prof Fabamwo: Delivering Quality Healthcare Services To Nigerians

For decades, the Nigerian health sector has been bedeviled with challenges ranging from increased cases of communicable, non communicable diseases, frequent epidemic outbreaks, brain drain, poor infrastructure, inadequate beds to frequent strikes by healthcare workers, among others.

These challenges have led to poor health indices in the country. For instance, the maternal mortality rate in Nigeria is 576 maternal mortality per 100,000 live births, while approximately 262,000 babies die at birth every year.

There is need to change the narrative and that was the focus of the current chief medical director, the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital(LASUTH), Professor Adetokunbo O. Fabamwo, when he was appointed as the CMD of the health facility in January 1, 2019.

So far, the teaching hospital has witnessed a number of impactful events and innovations that have started since the inception of the current management. 

For instance, Fabamwo ensured that the Nursing Services Department is now disaggregated into four new units comprising Clinical Services, Training and Research, Monitoring crew and Administration as part of the efforts to keep upgrading the hospital’s services in terms of functionality and excellent service delivery.

The hospital began microvascular surgery tissue in head and neck and the hospital remains the first teaching hospital to perform the surgery successfully. 

In filling the gap for acute shortage of nurses and to ensure that patient care is optimised, the CMD deployed ward assistants. He also employed a crop of bed managers who ensure the availability of beds in the Emergency Units.

Under his administration, LASUTH now carry out ICD Insertion and Neurosurgical Intervention and performs Microvascular Breast Surgery (Breast Reconstruction), among others.

To prevent power failure, Fabamwo has installed three new 500 KVA generator to augment the power supply by mainland PPP.

“We have also established a Special Services Centre where the following services are on offer; Endoscopy, Bronchoscopy, Dialysis and Cardiac Catheterization. In line with one of the Mr. Governor’s five pillars of development agenda, ‘THEMES’’, (Education and technology) budgetary allocation and support has been provided for training and capacity development of healthcare staff in LASUTH. 

“Staff were sponsored to attend a number of programs locally and outside the hospital. In terms of healthcare personnel, in the year 2022, a total of 634 personnel was approved for special dispensation and exit replacement,” the CMD told LEADERSHIP. 

Education and Career

Fabamwo, whose professional experience spans over three decades, is a professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Lagos State University College of Medicine, Ikeja. 

He holds an MBChB degree from the University of Ife in June 1978 and fellowships of the National Postgraduate Medical College, West African College of Surgeons and the International College of Surgeons. 

He was the medical director of Ayinke House for many years and the pioneer director of Clinical Services and Training at the evolution of LASUTH in 2001.

He switched to a full-time academic career at the Lagos State University College of Medicine in May 2005 with his appointment as a senior lecturer in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and was promoted a full professor in October 2013.

He has over 80 scientific publications in mainly international peer-reviewed journals. He was acting dean, Faculty of Clinical Sciences of Lagos State University College of Medicine in 2007. In this capacity, he was the university senate representative on the inaugural Governing Board of LASUTH. 

He served on the governing board of Yaba Psychiatric Hospital representing the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) Lagos. He was chairman of the Hospitals Management Board Residency Training Committee and chairman of the Technical Committee of the Lagos State Maternal and Perinatal Deaths Surveillance Response Programme (MPDSR). 

He is a member of the Sub-Saharan Cervical Cancer Working Group, an International scientific research group. He is also the chairman of the governing board of the Institute of Fertility Medicine (which is a public-private IVF venture between LASUTH and the Bridge Clinic).

He is the co-editor of the Tropical Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, a publication of  the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON) and deputy editor in chief of Lagos State University (LASU) Journal of Health Sciences. He is a contributing editor of the Journal of Women’s Health.

In 2021, he was inducted as a fellow of the equally prestigious Academy of Medicine Specialties in Nigeria.

He is married to Olubunmi, the chairman, Lagos state Civil Service Commission and they are blessed with children and grandchildren.