SPECIAL INTERVIEW WITH CMD, IMO STATE SPECIALIST HOSPITAL, UMUGUMA, OWERRI "The intensive care unit of the hospital started in the third week of December 2021"

• By Prince Eze Ugochukwu

*"This place has become a spine center for complex spine surgeries and I can assure you that I've carried out many spine surgery sessions since August - more than any hospital in this country"* ~ Dr. Kaunda Ibewuike. Chief Medical Director of the Imo State Specialist Hospital.

*Question*:  Good day Sir, please may we know you and your status in this hospital.

*Answer*:  I am Dr. Kaunda Ibewuike. I am Chief Medical Director of the Imo State Specialist Hospital and a consultant neurosurgeon. Neurosurgeon compasses the spine care and brain, and incidentally I am experience in both aspects of neurosurgery. We have some neurosurgeon who are more into brain surgery so they don't do much of spine. But I do both. Complex spine surgeries, complex brain surgeries. They are my primary and current areas of practice.

*Question*:   We heard about the latest breakthrough in your hospital and we also heard about the new ICU equipment and installation. How long have you had these installations?

*Answer*:  The intensive care unit of the hospital started in the third week of December 2021. The process of getting an intensive care unit ready started in the month of October. We actually thought we could finish it before the end of October but it dropped into the second week of November and we commenced services third week of December and since then we have been able to make use of the resources available to help a lot of patients.  Basically and primarily for brain surgery cases, -  the ICU has become very helpful. For neurosurgery, an intensive care unit is a must.

*Question*:  Are there other equipments that you have which distinguishes this hospital.


*Answer*:  Well when it comes to neurosurgery in particular - when we commenced spine surgery, there are equipments that are necessary and needed for surgical services. We have what we call the basic instrument for brain and spine surgery - both are of particular significance. 

There is an equipment called the CR x-ray machine, without this machine you can't do spine surgeries and you will not believe that this machine is a standout machine for every hospital that intends to manage spinal conditions competitively and even currently orthopedic and neurological institutions are into this. 

We got this machine directly from Europe. The machine was delivered to us over a period of four weeks. As of today, we have paid all for the machine and with this machine, this place has become a spine center for complex spine surgeries and I can assure you that I've carried out many spine surgery sessions since August - more than any hospital in this country. 

We basically do spine surgeries every week from Monday to Friday. This hospital has four theatre suites. I can inform you that there are hospitals even federal hospitals that just have two theatre suites, and most of these theatre suites are shared  - which means that if you're working as a neurosurgeon you can only operate once a week - the day you have been allotted for your surgery. But here we have a dedicated neurosurgical theatre that operate every day and because of this, we now stand out as a hospital with a dedicated neurosurgical centre where you can also perform complex brain surgery.


*Question*:  Away from the equipment and the ICU installations, are there other innovations in this hospital since this administration?


*Answer*:  When we took over this hospital, the hospital had poor organizational system especially among the staff. We had a situation whereby after 4p.m, you only have two doctors on duty in the whole of the hospital - one covering the emergency pediatric and the other covering the accident and adult emergency, and the two of them cover the rest of the hospital, the maternity wing and the medical and surgical wing. 

Which means that if something happens in the maternity wing and you are the one covering the adult emergency, you will not be in the maternity wing, meaning that whatever happens at the other place you are clueless about it. We had a lot of lapses. So when I came on board, I said no, that it is not right for a specialist hospital -  So the first thing we did was to departmentalize the hospital so we have Surgery Department, Medicine Department.  

We have also carried out a cardiothoracic surgery in this hospital although we don't have a cardiothoracic surgeon but we had to invite an expert because the patient had a very terrible problem in which he broke his spinal cord and then broke his chest bone, so we needed to fix this two on the same day. All we had to do was to invite a cardiothoracic surgeon who came and fixed the chest bone and we had to carry on spinal surgery. That was a complex surgery.  I didn't broadcast it, because I just felt this is not to be bothered about but then we cover all the surgical specialties now.

We now went further to now commence neuro surgery services which I told you earlier on how we commenced, which now challenged us to have an intensive care unit which is now big. All this, we achieved within one year.
With the employment of people and with the knowledge of what is happening here, the need for staff to be trained now became very important. So I had to get a second neurosurgeon. 

This means that we actually have two neurosurgeons in this hospital who are rendering services in the hospital and with these, we started growing more and more and we had to appoint a head of research who can house officers and help train our new doctors and new nurses to ensure that they understand the visions and goals of this hospital and also to give the patient the best of care.

*Question*:  What has the working system or welfare of the staff looked like since the administration of His Excellency, Governor Hope Uzodimma.

*Answer*:  One of the challenges we met was that the salaries of a group of staff which we describe as allied health workers was underpaid. They were being paid with HAPPS. HapP, is an outdated salary structure of 2007 but His Excellency, Governor Hope Uzodimma saw it and frowned at it and corrected it. This correction, brought a lot of jubilation in the hospital. Before then I get uncountable complaint from these staff but when His Excellency effected this, it brought a lot of staff motivation.

*Question*:  What message do you have for Imolites?


*Answer*:  The message I have for Imolites is that we are ready to work in line with international best practices. As you can see, this place is equipped now and ready to carry out any neurological surgery and most importantly when I met His Excellency after my assumption here, I explained to him that my pay wasn't what I expected but His Excellency told me that I should go and see whatever I'm doing here as my service to my state and it meant a whole lot of things to me. So, my message to Imoltes is, - we should always think about what we can do for our state and not what our state can do for us. Thank you. 

*An Interactive Session Between the Special Adviser to the Imo State Governor on Public Enlightenment, Prince Eze Ugochukwu and the Chief Medical Director, Imo State Specialist Hospital.