Five wards comprising 150 beds have been shut down at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi-Araba.

The development is due to a shortage of health personnel on account of Japa syndrone (migration).

Chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Health, Dr. Amos Magaji, who revealed this, lamented that despite the high number of patients besieging the wards daily, the facilities had to be shut due to health personnel shortage.

The lawmaker who spoke with journalists after an oversight visit to LUTH stated that many health workers, especially nurses and doctors, had left the teaching hospital in search of greener pastures.

Magaji said: “We saw significant problems here (LUTH). Right now, there are about five wards in LUTH, totalling about 150 beds that have been shut down because there are no nurses and doctors to work in those wards as a result of the ‘japa’ syndrome we are having.

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“As a committee, we will work together with the Federal Government and also with the teaching hospital to find a way out of these national embarrassments that have befallen this country.

“It’s not something that can be fixed in one day, but nevertheless, we are going to be approaching it piecemeal. We are going to do what we can do immediately and what we can do long-term approach to it.

“So, by the grace of God, some of the issues of the ‘japa’, we are actually looking at how to solve this problem, starting even from the enrolment in universities, and then how house officers are employed, and then of course, the residency programme.”

Chief Medical Director of LUTH, Prof. Wasiu Adeyemo, tasked corporate individuals and Nigerians to partner with the institution in delivering quality health care to the people.

The Star