CHIEF MEDICAL DIRECTOR, FEDERAL NEURO-PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL,EDO STATE, BENIN CITY- DR. IMAFIDON OSAMA AGBONILE MBBS,MPH,MHPM, FWACP,FNIM,FIMC,FNIMN,ODEA
A FOCUS MAN WITH GREAT DETERMINATION; YOUR HEALTH IS MY CONCERNED
Dr Imafidon Osama Agbonile is a man full of confidence and experienced. As it is said that he who sew beautifully reaps beautifully. He is a man who is dogged and committed to his duties which has attracted complimentary remarks about his personality. He is endowed with the special knowledge of being respected, leading others to follow and an accomplished Medical Doctor whose always have his heart of people in mind for a betterment of the Nation and whose knack for excellence and avowed commitment to a better society set him apart on the Africa continent.
A man of strong character and integrity from a humble prestigious background, a man of intimidating credentials who bestrides his space like a colossus. This amiable Doctor stand in a ladder steady passionate and purpose driven manner, he climbed his way up to the ladder of success to become one of the Best Medical Doctor, who has distinguished himself; he is an embedment of peace, unity, progress and a workaholic. He is passionate about the health of the Nation, guaranties welfare of the people, equal opportunity and protection for all citizens.
Dr. Imafidon is a good chief medical director who applied wisdom in all he does. He is a shining and worthy example of an handsome Medical Doctor, his boundless humanitarians services, commitment to the common good of the people and sacrifices to humanity will remain sterling qualities for which is known for. He is fearless committed, very determined, resourceful, proactive and dynamic fellow, equaled with his unparallel determination to succeed in everything he laid his hands upon. Though every human being on this planet earth has an indication of leadership, most of us do not have the courage to cultivate it. Dr Myles Munroe. The above quotation signifies the inborn medical leadership attributes of Dr. Imafidon Osama Agbonile, the Chief Medical Director of Federal Neuro-psychiatric Hospital Benin City which also has proven that true medical leadership, do not seek powers that are driven by passion to achieve a noble cause.
He is a loving, kind-hearted man and this shows in his dealing with all that come across him, including his Staff.
One peculiarity of Dr Imafidon Osama Agbonile is that he operates with synergy in his relationship with not only the staff of Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital. This amiable fellow is a man who has been identified as being effective and efficient in carrying out his official duties. A crusader of integrity who believes in efficiency and has contributed immensely towards the achievement of the core mandate of Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Edo State, Benin City and as well as zero tolerance for corruption.
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Hear Him:
Can You Tell Us More About Who You Are And Your Role Of Chief Medical Director Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital?
I am Dr. Imafidon Osama Agbonile, the chief medical director of Federal Neuro-psychiatric Hospital Benin City, I have been the Chief Medical Director since October 1st, 2020 but I started working here in the year 2000. I was appointed during the administration of President Buhari. For my background, I am a medical doctor with MBBS, I am also a Fellow of the West African College of Physicians, bagged with National Post Graduate College of Medicine. I have other qualifications such as a master’s degree in public health, masters degree in health management and planning. I am a Fellow of several institutes apart from that of the Physicians college, I am a fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Management and at the moment, I am actually the Chairman of the Edo State branch of the Institute and also a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultancy as well as a Member of the Nigerian Institute of Training and Development. I also have a certificate in Oracle Database Administration on Solaris. I am Fellow of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria and the Chairman Benin Chapter. So, people ask me what I do with marketing. Yes! I specialize mostly in digital marketing Heath care resources. This is my educational background. I joined Federal Neuro-psychiatric Hospital Benin City 23 years ago as a resident Doctor and was trained for my postgraduate training in psychiatry and I have worked here since that time. In Federal Neuro-psychiatric Hospital Benin City I was appointed as a consultant, appointed as Head of Clinical services and eventually by the grace of God was appointed as the Chief Medical Director 2020. I am married of course with 3 kids, 2 girls and a boy, luckily for me, one of them has taken after me which is the girl, the first, she is currently studying Medicine at the University of Benin. The second took after my other passion which is I.C.T., she is currently studying computer science. The last one is still in secondary school.
How Would You Describe The Overall Mission And Vision Of The Hospital?
Well, our mission and vision has been there for quite a while and in fact, we are even reviewing it now. However, it has to do with delivering the very best of mental health services using the most modern tools available and our vision to deliver this in the most effective and appropriate way to such an extent that we have a maximum positive impact on the clients in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. However, we are expanding that mandate because it was just restricted to mental health services. That mandate has been expanded now to increase general medical services. Remember that mentally ill patients suffer the same kind of illness that all of us we do and they are diabetes, hypertension, kidney problem, cardiovascular problems, surgical problems. You see the problem, is because of stigma and bias, sometimes they are not accepted because people are afraid that they are going to be violent or stuffs like that because of their repeated understanding of mental illness and the fact that just a few percentages of them have those sorts of severe illness at least to that. But the ones the public sees are those who become vagrants. But the actual fact is the larger proportion of mental people don’t have such severe illness that leads to that vagrancy and then violence. We had that issue for a long time. So, we started our medical services with that mindset that let’s also begin to give these services right here. But eventually, we expanded our staff through an accredited NHIS now NHIA facility, so we extended it to our staff. Then, our staff, you remember NHIA includes family members, they started bringing them and extended family members, but then, we saw a need and we had to make some changes to fill this need and that is how the medical Centre was born. There is a construction building called GMC currently going on in Uselu and simultaneously another is being constructed at our permanent site. Right next to the construction in Uselu, there is a building where we attend to these people. Even with the current strike of National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), we are still maintaining some reasonable number of services there because We have some medical officers who fill in the space by lots of doctors who have left the country. Our vision has expanded beyond giving mental health services to giving general medical health services. Right now, we have antenatal services, delivery services, we have a labor ward, we have a mini theater for doing minor surgeries and by the time we finish this building I am talking about, we are going to go into full blown services. We have a physician heading the team; we have medical officers who are not psychiatric doctors, who are not resident doctors. For the first time in the history of this hospital, a few months ago we recruited nurses who are general nurse practitioners who are midwives specifically for that place, we are talking about 20-30 of these people. So, they are dedicated to that GMC. What we intend to do is to expand it to a level where we have cardio physicians, surgeons, pediatricians coming to run clinics there. Not to mention that also added to us which enables us to give better psychiatric services since we now have some funds to put in very modern equipment’s like EG machines, ECG machines which we use and then at the same time, most importantly reduces stigma. Now that we are treating general medical services and conditions, when people walk in here, they won’t say they are Kolo(mad) people. Now people walk in there confidently knowing that we treat both services. We have our immunization service also which has been going on for years now. We immunize up to 500 babies every month. Some of the children we are immunizing now are the children delivered to our centers.
What Are The Biggest Challenges The Hospital Faces In Providing Quality Care To Patients?
The current challenge is the Japa syndrome. Early August 2023 I signed acceptance for 3 staff who resigned just last month alone On a weekly basis, practically we have people resigning their appointments and leaving and I can tell you many are on their way because some have already written references. That is one of our greatest challenges. I mentioned earlier that we had to recruit medical officers to fill in the gaps. The problem is that now that NARD is on strike, if you look at their demands, the first number there is one for one replacement because the challenge is to replace those who are leaving. It is not as if doctors are not available but we can’t because of the rules of engagement of staff. It is a bit elaborates, you have to write to Abuja what we call a waiver to several agencies to process it, but the reason is because they have to check to know you have enough funds. You don’t just recruit staff and in the end, you cannot pay them which can as well cause problem and delays because the whole process takes at least 6 months and, in some cases a year and a half. The recruitment we did earlier this year, we started the process early last year and we could only do it around January and February. Those we wanted to replace in the recruitment as at that time, that number had doubled by the time we got the waver which automatically mean that we needed to write another one and that would take another length of time and that gives the people left behind double work to do. I mean, if 4 doctors were managing a position and 2 leaves, if 4 nurses were running a ward and 2 leaves, what would happen? The 2 nurses would have to cater for twice the number they were asked to cater for and that is more work, more wahala and that can even lead to medical accidents. Someone that is fatigued and has to do more work than usual may not be as diligent and may make some mistakes and that can be a problem. I am aware that the federal ministry of health is collaborating with the Head of Service of the federation and its budgets and other related agencies who are involved in this waver to resolve it and I think they have gone far in the resolution of this problem especially now that there is a strike. Hopefully very soon, a circular will be released. What we are saying is you don’t need to go through the whole process. If 2 doctors leave and they are earning a particular salary, let us take 2 doctors to fill that. Provided we don’t take any other person,that is the one for one we are asking for. Chances are in any case, if you have worked here for 5 years, your salary will be more than the people recruited today. So, the people coming in cannot earn as much as the former people leaving. The other challenge is funding. This building we are doing now would have started last year but funds were not released and even when funds were released, it was not released completely. This year alone, we have had 3-month overhead releases, and this is the 8th month, so we have 5 months’ arrears. So, we are surviving only on internally generated revenue, and we are also expected to remit that to the federal government and that is a problem. Insecurity is also a problem, our staff who are supposed to close at 8pm now close at 6pm and those who are supposed to resume at 8pm have to come earlier. But this one is something we can live with because it is a general challenge for everybody. The first two, if addressed, it will help us to provide services far better.
How Does The Hospital Ensure Patient Safety And Confidentiality In The Context Of Mental Care?
Confidentiality is ensured in our oaths both for the doctors, nurses and other medical personals. It is a serious crime in health care practice for you to bridge the confidence of your patients. Confidentiality is unto death including when patients is dead you are not expected to bridge it. It is only the court that can order us via court order, or the patient’s gives consent. As per security of staff, we have engaged with services like the police officers. The country at the moment is a bit unstable regarding security especially facilities with a lot of people. Then we have also engaged the services of vigilantes especially at our permanent sites 24/7 because that side is far bigger.
How Do You Stay Connected With The Needs And Concerns Of Patients And Families Within The Organization?
For the patients, we evaluate them. We have social welfare officers who go even to the homes of these patients. We have a home visiting team. We have an ambulance and a team that is headed by a consultant psychiatrist with very senior nurses and social workers attached so they can do what we call social investigation. We also engage schools for children to find out certain things about what is going on. For families working here, we try to do all we can within the rules regarding staff welfare. We try to give as much support as we can. At the end of the year, we are able to procure some items for junior staff like indomine to help them alleviate the issues during Christmas. We also have a staff cooperative that helps with loans for staff who may be distressed, especially when school would be resuming in September. Then of course, we ensure that their work environment is conducive as much as we can.
How Do You Collaborate With Other Healthcare Professionals, Departments, And Stakeholders To Ensure High Quality Care?
Any good medical personnel, not only doctors, one thing you will learn coming up and rising in this job is how to relate with your fellow health workers for harmony. By the grace of God, we have not had any industrial issue or strife in this hospital. We have very good relationships with the unions. We relate with our fellows as equals and respect their professional areas and their professional competence indeed, every Wednesday morning 8:30am –10:30am, you will see a gathering of different health professionals doing presentations which is also another avenue for us to bond.
Today, Lots Of Young Youths Are Now Patients Of The Psychiatric Hospital, What Would You Say Has Drastically Caused This And What Is Your Advice To Them?
Mental illness is sometimes defined as the illness of the youth which persist into adulthood. Many times, you may not see it clearly when the person is very young until the person is much older otherwise sometimes you think it is a youthful thing. However, drug users are more common with the youths than the older people due to peer pressure but now it is almost an epidemic as even children of primary schools all take these sorts of drugs even new ones. They even take prescription drugs and abuse it like tramadol and co. This sudden surge in the use of some of these drugs is not connected with the surge in attendance rate because eventually, they breakdown and they have to come in for rehabilitation. Luckily, we have a UNODC accrediting facility for rehabilitation of drug abused patients or those we call dependent patients. If you look at the way society is now, you will not be surprised that you have this because people try to escape the harsh reality of life by using substances. We call it a maladaptive way of coping with stress. Also, what causes this is the influence of the social media, cultism and the western world and we are struggling with the outcome. In my opinion, the expectations now of youths are a bit too much to cope with.
What Advice Would You Give To Aspiring Medical Professionals Or Individuals Interested In Pursuing Similar Leadership Roles?
It is the aged long advice. Work hard because medicine is hard, it’s long. They should dig in, be diligent, study hard because at the end is when you have the good result, you are guaranteed a good job for life. You need to be good because it is a profession that if you are not good, people would know in a very short time. It is not a profession you can hide but an outcome type of profession. They shouldn’t also take it as a job or a ticket to a better life but it is a COMPASSIONATE JOB. The person must have compassion for it even if it is at the expense of yourself, emotionally speaking, unless you will be doing the job and not be happy.
Is There Anything Else You Would Like To Share With The Public About The Hospital’s Approach To Neuro Psychiatric Medicine?
Yes! I wish to say that our hospital is a place where you can get world-class services within the boundaries of our local challenges and this is one hospital when you walk in the morning, everyone is already at their desk. Sometimes, you can find me here as early as before 8am. It is one hospital where you can get people to handle any case you bring within the sphere of our influence on mental health and now even the general medical care. It is one hospital That it is a public hospital behaves as though it is both a private and public hospital. It is also one hospital within time is top notch and you don’t have to waste too much time to get seen by the doctor. In some hospitals, you may wait several hours to see a physician. Here you can see a physician within 30 mins to 1 hour max. This is one hospital where you have directors still running wards and not sitting in one office. This is why when we recruit people, we recruit people who would key into that. We don’t want people to do normal where they think they won’t do much work or get stressed. This is one hospital where all the consultants are readily available to the public. We have a top-notch psychiatric nursing school, and we are expanding now to a college of nursing. We have just been given a template by the NBTE to mount OND, HND, general nursing and then public health nursing. And then our own which have been doing before which is psychiatric nursing certificate which is now going to be a post graduate diploma in mental health nursing. We have a full building for that on our permanent site with Classes, facilities, AC’s and all. Our nurses are one of the most sought after both within the country and outside. This is why people want to come and do their post basic here.
Where Do You See The Hospital In The Next 3-5 Years’ Time?
We are going to be the foremost hospital and we wish to completely dominate the sphere of mental health in the country. For our general medical services, we intend to be one of the best in the state. When I was going for the job, I submitted a strategic plan for 2020 and that strategic plan was to run for 4 years, and we were able to achieve it in a year and a half. So, we decided to add to what we had planned and see if we can also do it another 2 years.
