The outgoing Medical Director of the Federal Medical Centre, Ebute-Metta, Lagos, Dr. Adedamola Dada, has said the hospital has undergone a dramatic transformation under his leadership, growing from a poorly equipped 72-bed facility to a modern 450-bed tertiary health institution in just eight years.
Dada, whose tenure as medical director ends on May 31, 2025, disclosed this on Friday during a media briefing in Lagos, where he recounted the reforms and infrastructure overhaul carried out during his administration.
He said when he assumed office, the hospital was plagued by infrastructural decay, lack of essential medical equipment, and poor service delivery, adding that many stakeholders doubted the possibility of any meaningful progress due to chronic power supply issues and limited funding.
“At the time I took over, there were only three theatre suites—two for general surgeries and one for maternity. Today, we have 12 fully equipped theatre suites. Our hospital beds have grown from 72 to 450. That speaks volumes about our expansion efforts,” he said.
Dada, an orthopaedic surgeon, also recalled that the hospital had only one patient monitor, which was not functional when he assumed duty.
“Today, we have over 500 patient monitors, and every patient has one. They are all linked to a central system that feeds directly into our electronic medical record,” he stated.
He highlighted that the hospital, once without a mortuary, now operates a functional one, alongside a state-of-the-art Central Sterilisation and Supply Department (CSSD), which has become a training hub for other hospitals across the country.
“Before now, we didn’t have a standard central sterilisation unit. Now we’ve built one that is regarded as the reference point nationwide. Every year, hospitals send their staff here for training in sterilisation practices,” he added.
He added that the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit (ICU) also saw significant upgrades, growing from one non-functional bed to 16 fully equipped ICU beds, each with ventilators, syringe pumps, fluid pumps, and central monitoring systems.
He further said the hospital now boasts over 24 ventilators, including some in its 12 new ambulances, compared to the single, non-functional transport ventilator available in 2017.
He said the paediatric unit, which had just one working incubator at the start of his tenure, now has over 30, while the radiology unit has also been enhanced with the acquisition of two CT scan machines.
Dada credited the hospital’s progress to strategic planning, a shared vision, and a committed team, even as the hospital continues to operate under the immense burden of poor electricity supply.
“We receive only about two to three hours of public power daily and still spend about N20 million monthly on electricity bills. We are forced to rely on diesel generators, consuming over 80,000 litres of diesel monthly to run the hospital’s 24-hour power supply,” he said.
He warned that the energy crisis poses a serious threat to healthcare delivery in public hospitals and urged the federal government to prioritise sustainable power solutions for health institutions.
“Electricity is not a luxury in hospitals; it is a necessity. If machines that sustain lives shut down for even a few minutes, lives are at risk,” he said.
Despite these challenges, he said FMC Ebute-Metta has received multiple awards for innovation and service delivery, including being named the most compliant hospital in Lagos State by the Health Facilities Monitoring and Accreditation Agency in 2022 and a trailblazer in ICT integration by the Bureau of Public Service Reform.
“We have built a hospital that many didn’t think was possible, one that now offers advanced services like laparoscopic and endoscopic surgery, neurosurgery, cardiothoracic surgery, and is currently developing a cancer centre,” Dada said.
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