Just tell us about yourself and what Life Center, Isolation Center is all about?

Dr: Yes, thank you very much Mr. Dennis for coming here. This is Life Center, Gbagada, which is a Covid-19 treatment and testing center. I am Major General Dr. Sina Ogunbiyi MNI. I am a fellow of the West African College of Surgeons, Fellow of the Nigerian Medical College, Of an Institute, also a fellow of the Nigerian Academy of Medicine.

I am a consultant anesthetics and intensivist, and also the president of the intensive and critical care society of Nigeria. I am also a member of the council of the world federation of intensive and critical care. Being the first black council member since 35 years of the establishment of the world federation, my tenure is from 2017 till this year 2021. I was also an associate professor of anesthesia at the Kaduna state university from 2014 to 2017.

I have been involved with the Lagos state emergency operation Center for the covid-19 response since inception last year shortly before we had the index patient that came to Nigeria from, that brought covid-19 to Nigeria from Milan, Italy. I am talking of the 44-year-old gentleman. And I am the critical care strategic pillar lead for the EOC covid-19 response.

I was privileged to be the one to establish the first five dreaded covid-19 intensive care unit in this country which is what we have , a novel covid-19 ICU that we have in the Mainland Hospital, Yaba, till date. I think that says just a little bit of me.

What necessitated the setting up of Life Center?

Dr Ogunbiyi: Yes, The Life center, like I said earlier on, I am the medical director of the Life Centre. This is a PPP initiative of the Lagos State Government and what we, the state govt has put in place is we have the public facility and we have the private facility. You may be aware that there are only four private facilities, and there are only three functional as we speak, and these are not enough. Public facility, the main public facility which is in Mainland isolation center presently, and again, this is not satisfactory. And not every patient, Covid-19 patient wants to come to the public facility, especially in a cosmopolitan place as Lagos as we have it.

Also, the private facilities are so expensive to run and maintain because the facilities that are put in place, it serve for covid-19, both in testing and treatment, they are very expensive. In actual fact, Lagos State has done enormously well In the past one year, almost one year.

Yes, in two days time, it will be one year that our index patient came into Nigeria. So, what this means is that, in terms of quantitative hmm spending of the government for the public facilities, the Lagos state government had done enormously so much, and this can be seen in the number, in the numbers of patients which have gone through the public facilities. As I have said, this facility here, it’s a medium hmm facility in terms of expenses, in terms of those who have the covid-19 who may not wish to go to a public facility and who probably may not be able to afford the high rate in the other private facility. That is why we have this put in place as a PPP initiative of the government.

What is the duration of this agreement, and then tell us the PPP arrangement, and then also, are there other detail that you want us to know also?

Dr Ogunbiyi: Well, it is a Private-public partnership like I mentioned and in terms of the details, these are purely administrative.

What is the maximum capacity, facility, and then, were there any specifications at all in mind when this place was being set up?

Dr Ogunbiyi: yes, the equity of the state government is the infrastructure which is here, as you can see, the ambiance of this facility you will think that you are in one South African, UK hospital as it were, none of the private hospitals can beat what we have here on one hand. On the other hand, to answer your question directly, we presently have about 40 beds which include the four, which includes the four-bedded Covid-19 ICU in this place.

And also we have side rooms, self contains, side rooms apart from general beds. I can assure you that we have the propensity to increase capacity if need be, but we are starting with an initial of 40 beds.

Why should anybody choose Life Center over other private facilities?

Dr Ogunbiyi: yes, I just said plenty that in Life Center, our aim is to offer the best, updated treatment option for the treatment of covid-19 in an ambiance, in an environment which on its own will even improve your well being. That is on one account. On the other account is the fact that in Life Center, right from the time you work into this place, you will know that this is a very standardized facility, and it is so affordable for those who may not be able to afford the high cost in the fully private accredited centers.

The PTR testing is the minimum, maximum rather. Maximum of 24 hours. But we also attend to urgent PTR testing and our test result from her is acceptable at the Lagos International Airport or whatever airport that hmm that a traveler decides to leave Nigeria. It is an accredited medical center.

So, there are three types of cares which we undertake here and that is the low care. These is those patients that are either asymptomatic and have mild symptoms of coughing, general distress and we test them if they are positive and we may advise them to come for admission. This is low care. Alright? We have middle care, mid-care and this involves those who have additional symptoms, especially those who have co-morbidities. Co-morbidities means those who are hypertensive, those who are obese, who are diabetic and come out, and come down with covid-19 symptoms and this definitely will need mid-care admission and mid-care.

Now those who need high care are those who now have breathlessness, hunger, as in air- hunger and those, these are those who are severely ill. I repeat that these people are severely ill or those we say are critically ill. they will end up, those will critically end up in the intensive care unit. That is those that need high care.

Are there any sort of preparedness from the part of Life Care as regards the Covid-19 new variant?

Dr Ogunbiyi: Oh yes, what I can tell you with respect to that is that first and foremost, it is still covid-19. The new variant as it were, challenges with that has to do with the speed which it is transmissible unlike what we had last year, and then the depth of affectivity of the patient is also deep, and it falls into our mid care to high care. The treatment for all the variants are generally the same.

There is no cure for covid-19 as at date, but what we do is to use adjunct, which can reduce the effect of Covid-19 virus in the respiratory system or in the lungs as it were and every day we keep updating our knowledge. It is still a rapidly evolving disease, and we on our part here, we have highly skilled consultants in their various specialties who themselves are up-to-date, up to standard, and we are going to roll in this for the care of the patient in the care.

So, what is the staff strength like here?

Dr Ogubiyi: yes, presently, apart from me, I am also a consultant intensivist as I say, we do have on the ground some other consultants, we have about 5 consultants in the various sub-specialties and we have medical officers. About 10 medical officers and also nursing staff. Critical care nurses, about, we have about 5 critical care nurses. Everybody here are all those who have heard experiences in the management of the covid. That is one of the advantages right here at Life care.

How long has the center commenced operation, and then, what has been the experience like, you know, managing this facility and then overseeing the treatment of patients, testing and all?

Dr Ogunbiyi: Yes, this facility was approved by the government and we came to life barely a week ago, and then it has been interesting because we have had lot of people coming to ask questions. Some have been coming for testing and we have been responsive to this, and also, a lot of people hmm, they really want to know if they are able to afford them. When they come in here, we tell them what we can do, and what we do, and the responses have been good.

The center is affordable but it is directed mostly to the middle class and high class, and those that want private care. Standard private care hmm from the front desk we have those who are skilled in hospitality and also the center has state of the heart facilities which are in use presently for the treatment of Covid-19.

There has been a sort of debate that president Muhammad Buhari passed a bill. They signed a bill into law that is prosecuting people that are not covid-19 protocol compliance, while some other people have said that use security operatives to enforce these protocols, some people believe that it is by persuasion, so, what is your position on this?

Dr Ogunbiyi: what I will say is that the responsibility for us to either make or mar our health as individuals is personal. It is our personal responsibility. We don’t need even the government to pass a bill. It is, we should know what is right and what is wrong. It is just that society to a large extent, we still need to do a lot of awareness for those who otherwise. Not everybody watches television, not everybody reads newspaper, but I know that Lagos State government on its part has been going to the market, have been going to bus stops and so on, and so let’s go back to track and make awareness about the use of face masks, about the use of hand sanitizers, hand washing and social distancing , but at the end of the day, either however we take it, it is a personal responsibility.