Foundation Gifts Medical Equipment, Trains 60 Healthcare Professionals On Emergency Response

By Kazeem Akande

(NAN) A Foundation, HealthAid Charity, has trained 60 healthcare professionals in Lagos on emergency response.

The foundation also donated free medical equipment to some medical facilities in the state.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 60 medical and healthcare professionals benefitted from the training which focused on life support and emergency handling of casualties, on Wednesday.

Mrs Lanre Nehan-Babalola, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NaijAid(UK), said that the essence of the seminar was to empower and to help improve the skills of a healthcare professionals during emergency in Lagos.

Babalola, also the Founding Trustee of the HealthAid Foundation, said that nurses and healthcare professionals were trained on how to ensure casualties did not deteriorate in emergency situations.

“We initiated this training for healthcare professionals so that they can assess and know when the patients are deteriorating and intervene on time, so that the patient’s outcome will be favourable.

“So, because we are based in the UK, we do fundraising events and most people that support us are Nigerian citizens in diaspora.

“Presently, we target 60 healthcare professionals to benefit from the training this year, the 2024 edition. We have established the exercise for the past seven years, with 10,000 participants so far.

“We have our friends, families, and people that are in diaspora and Nigerian citizens supporting us as well, but 50 per cent of the funding comes from me and my husband, so we fund most of it.

“At the same time, all the volunteers trainers that traveled down from the UK traveled down by themselves. We do in the UK, what you call, running events and walk events to raise funds”

She said that because of the practical elements of the training, they needed enough instructors to do some actual demonstrations such as the actual CPR.

“It’s a ratio of one trainer to 12 people so that we can do the practice and they can learn more that way,” she said.

Babalola said that the training would go a long way to reduce unnecessary and untimely death in both the neighborhood and in the hospitals.

According to her, the training is mainly based on “Train the Trainer”, so that the professionals will also train others in the community on emergency response.

She said that the two-day workshop would focus on- “Early Recognition of Deteriorating Patients”, “Early Warning Scores”, “Prediction Accuracy”, “Clinical Response Based on Score and calculations”.

Babalola added that the training was committed to relieving sickness and preserving the health of people in emergency.

Dr Folake Bewaji-Dawodu, a Consultant Anaesthesia, based in England and one of the Volunteers, corroborated that the aim of the training was to help save lives during emergency.

“The major aim of this training is to really help save lives essentially during emergency, both at home and at the hospital.

“We want to take the knowledge that we have and impart it in a way that is meaningful, that makes sense, and in a way that it can be used locally.

“So, one of the things we did is that, we found out what resources are available locally, because there’s no point in bringing things from the UK that is not available here and trying to enforce it,” she said.

According to her, since they introduced the concept, because I have a strong zeal for teaching and I’ve got a lot of teaching experience as well with my job in the UK.

“One of the things we want to do going forward is develop emergency response and handling.

“We talked about the early warning scoring system, and that is not available here, but you have all the tools that make up that system.

“We want to work in partnership with some nurses and doctors here, to develop that framework so that they can start to use it here as well. This is because they have all the parameters that make up the framework.

“So, it’s just putting it together and working with it,” she added.

Mrs Dorcas Shonibare, the Director of Nursing Services, Lagos State Ministry of Health, while giving her remarks, said that NaijAid charity had been partnering the Lagos State Government on facilitating seminars for healthcare professionals.

Shonibare said that the partnership had been with the Directorate of Nursing in the Lagos state Ministry of Health, and that there was plan to expand the partnership.

“There is a plan for NaijAid to meet with the Honorable Commissioner, so that the partnership can be expanded to other areas in Lagos health sector.

“In 2023, NaijAid charity donated 10 Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs), and training was carried out. These were distributed to our various health facilities.

“The directorate has developed checklists on how we can get a feedback of how these machines are being used.

“That it will be a springboard for NaijAid to improve on their partnership with the directorate, because the donation of the AEDs has enabled nurses to practise hands-on with these devices, it’s not that our hospitals don’t have.

“But it’s not something that they can take out off either the theatre where it’s being used or in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU)”.

NAN reports that Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) are portable, life-saving devices designed to treat people experiencing sudden cardiac arrest, a medical condition in which the heart stops beating suddenly and unexpectedly.

Shonibare added that the nurses now had equipment at their own end of service, that they could use to practise and could also be used to teach the student nurses.

The director said that the partnership could be expanded, that more nurses, more students could also come on board for the training.

“You know, we are ensuring that it’s not the same set of people that are coming. In Lagos state, we have well over 7,000 nurses.

“So, you can imagine a day training is like a drop in the ocean,” she said.

NAN reports that the participants were also given First-Aid kits to attend to emergencies at any point in time. (NAN)