As part of efforts to reduce the cost of caring for the sick in Lagos, the Rotary Club, Ikeja GRA, has commenced the construction of a 36-bed apartment for relatives of hospitalised patients at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja.
The club said the apartment would address the challenge of accommodation that families and relatives face whenever their sick loved ones are hospitalised at the tertiary hospital.
It expressed worry that relatives of patients on admission often sleep on bare floors and in their cars at night because there are no accommodations in the hospital, while hotels in the vicinity are very expensive and out of reach for most families.
Experts say better patient and family experience is associated with more favourable clinical outcomes.
Speaking at the official commencement of the construction of the facility, President of Rotary Club Ikeja GRA, Adeyemi Adesina, said Rotary supported LASUTH with the apartment so that families and relatives of patients admitted at the hospital could have a decent place to have their bath, relax and have a change of clothing.
Adesina said, “Today is the Turning of SOD which shows that the project started today. You know in our society, we hardly abandon our loved ones in the hospital.
“When we met with the management of LASUTH, they confirmed that their major need now is to have a place where people who come with their patients can put up instead of them staying by the wards, sleeping on the floor and in car parks.
“We feel that part of the responsibilities of Rotary is to ensure that we mitigate and reduce the spread of disease as much as we can and have a positive impact to ensure that we stop maternal mortality and improve disease prevention.
“These are some of the focus areas for Rotary and we decided to support humanity. The theme for this year says ‘Create Hope in the World’. At times we have people who have patients in intensive care for three months. A lot of families don’t have the financial capacity to stay in a hotel.”
He pointed out that there was a need to care for the carers in society, adding, “Coming to a teaching hospital means that you have gone to different hospitals before coming here. So we feel that people must have spent a lot and we feel that as a Rotary Club, we can support people.
“And that is why we are supporting LASUTH by providing a 36-bed caregiver apartment. It is a story-building apartment where patients’ relatives can come relax, have their bath, change their clothing, and rest before they go back to their loved ones.
“They don’t have to struggle or suffer. That is why we decided to come together as a club to provide this facility.”
Adesina noted that the apartment worth over N50 million would be completed before the end of July, 2024, and and commended LASUTH for giving them the land for free.
Service Project Chair, Rotary Club Ikeja GRA, Busolami Idowu, said the apartment will particularly help parents of children admitted to the paediatric wards to stay temporarily and is going to be for free.
“As a club, we are doing this project to impact humanity. A lot of parents struggle to stay around the wards because they don’t have a conducive place to stay. The apartment will provide them a more conducive place to stay” she added.
In his remarks, the Chief Medical Director of LASUTH, Prof Adetokunbo Fabamwo, said the facility was not about money making but about feeling a gap.
He noted, “We are still relation-dependent health facilities. However, this is not the case in developed countries.
“The reality is that relatives stay with their patients and they have to sleep. They sleep in the open and in their cars. The facility will help patients’ relations have a place to put their heads and sleep.”
The CMD commended the club for supporting LASUTH.
