LANDMARK ACHIEVEMENTS IN ASH


LANDMARK ACHIEVEMENTS IN ASH
Asaba Specialist Hospital was commissioned on June 15, 2021. Although it has been in existence since February 2019 when skeletal services were offered to our patients. From September 2020, the facility started 24 hours services, thus, putting an end to the hitherto working hours of 6am-6pm. The hospital opened up the Accident and Emergency Unit which included Children Emergency and Adult Emergency. Alongside the Maternity Ward, Labour Ward and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Two more wards for male and female, and the Peadiatric Ward. The hospital currently operates at full capacity.

The hospital boasts of 11 wards namely: the Maternity Ward, Labour Ward and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Male Medical, Female medical, Male surgical, Female surgical wards, Peadiatric Ward, and the Sickle cell center. Adult emergency and Children emergency wards.

The Sickle Cell Centre is a referral centre established by Her Excellency, the wife of the immediate past governor of Delta State, Dame Edith Okowa. Only children and adults with sickle cell anemia are admitted there, making the facility a specialized unit for just Sickle Cell Anemia.

The hospital is a 211 bedded facility with five theatres, all of which are in use. Three theatres are in the main theatre building, one in the maternity complex and on in the accident and emergency complex.

The hospital has an oxygen plant that has the capacity to produce 60 large cylinders of oxygen per day. This has helped to improve on patient care and also to improve revenue generation for the facility.

Radiological services available include a 4D USS Machine, Echocardiography, Mammography, X-ray, CT scan, and Magnetic Reissuance Imaging (M.R.I). The facility is the only government owned facility with the full completes of these equipments in the state.

There are specialists across several fields including Paediatrics, Neonalogy, Nephrology, Cardiology, Gastroenterology, General Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Maxillofacial surgery, Ophthalmology, obstetrics and Gynaecology, Public Health, Radiology and Family Medicine. The facility has also engaged some locum consultants to increase the range of services offered. They include: A Neuro-surgeon, ENT Specilaits, Urologist and a Paediatric Surgeon.

In line with the government’s vision of affordable healthcare for all Deltans, the facility has seen a total of 20,496 pregnant women and counting with over 3,500 deliveries including Caesarean sections done at no cost to patients from inception till date. In addition, free surgeries have been done for over 250 children less than five years of age. Over 80 brain surgeries conducted by the Neurosurgeon and has continued to record a high success rate.

The hospital has over 800 staff working full time. The government of Delta State has been gracious to the facility through employment recruitment of staff over the years which cuts across all specialties and fields.

The facility largely runs on internally generated revenue. Presently, 100% of what the facility does is run by IGR. This has been made possible through the executive governor’s commitment towards equipping the hospital with the ability to generate revenue to meet its needs. The hospital services are affordable for the common man. We have over 10,000 enrollees under the Delta State Contributory Health Scheme (DSCHS) accessing free healthcare in the hospital. We also have a social welfare system which enables us to assist indigent patients who cannot afford care.

Asaba Specialist Hospital has constant power supply from the state IPP, BEDC, and several backup generators including two 500 KVA generators, one 200 KVA and 100 KVA. There are some area powered by solar. The Solar power system services the laboratory, theatre and two wards, including the female medical and female surgical wards. It also powers the water supply to the hospital.

A crèche was established for workers children to ensure that their babies are well taken care of while they are on duty.

Several landmark achievements have been achieved over the years like the delivery of pre-term twins born at 26weeks weighing 0.45kg each, nursed for three months befor they were discharged. Also, our team of orthopedic surgeons have been able to perform several spine surgeries and hip joint replacement surgeries. This was made possible with the aid of the C-ARM machine purchased solely from IGR.

On the contributory health scheme of the state government, ASH offers tertiary level of care. It serves as a referral centre to most of the hospitals across Delta North Senatorial District, patients are referred for tertiary care from central hospital Agbor, Kwale, General Hospital Ogwashi-Ukwu and Okwe. It also gets patients from as far as Oleh and Sapele and even neighboring states.

Every child born currently at Asaba Specialist Hospital is screened and their genotype determined at birth at the Sickle Cell centre. A new born screening machine for genotype is available in the facility. The vision is for every child born in the state to be screened at birth and their genotype known. Since it has been discovered that more than 50% of sickle cell patients die before the age of 5yersa, early diagnosis is advisable to change the outcome positively. The facility has as Apheresis machine which is a machine that can carry out exchange blood transfusion for sickle cell patients, plasmapheresis and platelet separation. ASH serves as a tertiary centre for all sickle cell centers in the state, so patients that cannot be handled anywhere in the state are referred to ASH.