Biomedical Engineering Department of Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex Ile Ife is saddled with the responsibilities of providing supporting services to the clinicians in the area of medical equipment management and medical gas management.

In the area of medical equipment management, the department is involved in the following in other to ensure quality health service delivery and patient care:

1. Medical equipment recommendation and procurement
2. Incoming inspection and installation of medical equipment
3. Calibration, safety testing and performance testing on medical equipment
4. Maintenance and repairs of medical equipment
5. Periodic training of users on emerging medical equipment and technology, and
6. Safe disposal of obsolete medical equipment

Also, in the area of medical gas management, it is the responsibilities of the department to ensure adequate provision of medical gas for patient treatment and this is achieved by:

1. Production of medical gas (oxygen only)
2. Procurement of medical gas ( in case of shortage in gas production), and
3. Distribution of medical gas to wards and theaters.

In addition to these responsibilities, the department also oversees and/or supervises outsourced and contracted jobs and to advice the hospital management on matters relating to the tasks mentioned above.

Presently, the department has five (5) major units for good and quality service delivery based on her job function and a future proposal is in place as more sophisticated technology is being deployed, these are;

1. The Biomedical installation, maintenance and repair Unit
2. The Central supply sterilizing department (CSSD),
3. The Renal Unit,
4. The Oxygen Unit, and
5. The fabrication Unit

The present structure is that all these units are in both Wesley Guild Hospital in Ilesa and Ife Hospital Unit, from where all other units of the hospital are being taken care of.

The biomedical installation maintenance and repair unit

The main responsibility of this unit is to ensure proper functioning of all hospital medical equipment. This includes installation, maintenance and repairs of machines, devices, tools and all other equipment that are used for diagnosis, rehabilitation and treatment of patients to enhance quick service delivery. Because of the wide area covered by this unit, it is sub divided into other sub units, where capable personnel are posted for efficient service delivery, these are;

• Wards and clinics in phase1 and phase2
• The laboratories and laundry
• Adult casualty, physiotherapy, amenity, children emergency, wards and clinics in phase 3 and phase 4, Eye center, ENT
• The radiology, MRI and cardiac unit
• Theatres – main, labor ward, day case, eye center, adult casualty, ICU and endoscopy

The central surgical sterilizing (CSSD) unit

CSSD is the unit that handles the sterilization of dressing packs, surgical tools and materials, renal packs and other equipments for surgery.

The renal unit

Renal unit handles the responsibility of providing heamodialysis treatment for patients. The machines in this unit are life saving machines which need a close monitoring as long as patients are on them. So biomedical personnel monitor these machines for optimum and effective performance.

The oxygen gas unit

Oxygen gas unit handles the production and distribution of oxygen gas. The production unit involves in bottling of oxygen gas into various bottle volumes, that is, pin-index, medium, bull-nose and giant cylinder while the distribution unit involves in taking of produced oxygen gas into wards, theatres and gas pipe lines.

The Fabrication unit

This unit involves in production of hospital equipment. Some of the equipment that have been produced so far are;

1. Infant incubators
2. Genotype (Electrophoresis) machine
3. Blood rocker
4. Phototherapy machines
5. Drug trolleys
6. Suctioning machine, and
7. Rotating angle poise lamps.
8. Stretchers

The future aspiration of this unit is to produce more modern medical equipment and artificial human parts for patient management.

Organization and staff strength

Generally, the organization is such that each of the aforementioned units has a supervisor who reports directly to the head of the department and each of these units is reinforced with capable personnel who are responsible directly to his/her supervisor.

The staff strength of the department is currently fifty two (52) from various levels of discipline, training and academic qualifications .In order to meet up with the present and future challenges, there should be continuous provision for staff training and re-training program (local and overseas) in which some members of staff will continue to benefit from.

Summary

In summary, the impact of this department in delivering good health care cannot be overlooked since deploying modern technology in hospital services is our major task.

Engr. S. O. Akomolafe,
Assist. Director & Head (Biomedical)