Objective To assess patients' satisfaction with pharmaceutical services using an“ideal referent” model, and to further explore the validity of an existing patient satisfaction instrument. Method A cross‐sectional survey was conducted with a sample of 500 outpatients recruited consecutively at the University of Benin teaching hospital, Nigeria. A self‐completion questionnaire that employed a Likert‐type scale was used. Data were used to calculate scores on a scale that ranged from 20 to 100, with an assumed midpoint of 60. Descriptive statistics on the sample characteristics and questionnaire items were computed including means, standard deviations and frequency distributions. Varimax rotation with Kaiser normalisation was employed in principal factor analysis. Student's t‐test and one‐way ANOVA were used for inferential statistics. Key findings The instrument reliability was determined to be 0.9641 and was comparable to the reference study. Nearly half of the patients (46%) rated the amount of time the pharmacist offered to spend with them as poor. About one‐third rated promptness of prescription service as poor. Only 49% felt satisfied with the pharmaceutical services. Overall, pharmacy services received a satisfaction rating of 56.04±24.49, below the midpoint. Perceived satisfaction was significantly higher in “friendly explanation” than in “managing therapy” (t=3.916; P<0.0001). Conclusion The study provides evidence that patients experience low satisfaction with current pharmaceutical services at the study hospital. The sociodemographic characteristics of patients were not associated with their level of satisfaction. We further confirm the validity of the patient satisfaction questionnaire in a Nigerian practice setting.

Background:Unawareness of the peculiar healthcare needs of the elderly and resource constraints may be some reasons why until recently, Nigerian hospitals have not been equipped with the human and infrastructural resources required to meet older adults’ special healthcare needs. There is paucity of specialized health services for the elderly in Africa. Nigeria, with a population of over 170 million, did not have any healthcare facility with dedicated services for the elderly until 2012. The University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) in Nigeria was established in 1973 and created its geriatrics unit in October 2013. A prepared environment and trained interdisciplinary teams are pivotal in providing effective healthcare services for the elderly. The ongoing UBTH geriatrics project aims to provide specialized interdisciplinary health services to older adults and to provide training and continuing professional development in geriatrics for healthcare staff. In developing our inpatient services, we adopted the acute care for elders (ACE) model and worked in tandem with the “ABCs” of implementing ACE units.Results:In the face of limited resources, it was possible to establish a functional geriatrics unit with a trained interdisciplinary team. Family participation is central in our practice. Since October 2013, residents and house officers in internal medicine have been undertaking 4- and 12-weekly rotations, respectively. There is also a robust academic program, which includes once-weekly geriatric pharmacotherapy seminars, once-weekly interdisciplinary seminars, and 2-weekly journal club meetings alternating with seminars on geriatric assessment tools.Conclusions:It is possible to establish geriatric services and achieve best practices in resource-limited settings by investing on improving available human resources and infrastructure. We also make recommendations for setting up similar services in other parts of Africa.

Ten years after the historic Abuja meeting, only 5% of households in Benin City used ACTs for the treatment of malaria, sourcing medicines chiefly from patent medicine stores and private hospitals. Fathers' level of education was significantly associated with ACT use. Interventions to eliminate malaria from Nigeria should mainstream the men folk and health care providers outside government hospitals, in line with the Nigerian reality.

and full-text of published articles. The journal is devoted to the promotion of health sciences and related disciplines (including medicine, pharmacy, nursing, biotechnology, cell and molecular biology, and related engineering fields). It seeks particularly (but not exclusively) to encourage multidisciplinary research and collaboration among scientists, the industry and the healthcare professionals. It will also provide an international forum for the communication and evaluation of data, methods and findings in health sciences and related disciplines. The journal welcomes original research papers, reviews and case reports on current topics of special interest and relevance. All manuscripts will be subject to rapid peer review. Those of high quality (not previously published and not under consideration for publication) will be published without delay. The maximum length of manuscripts should normally be 10,000 words (20 single-spaced typewritten pages) for review, 6,000 words for research articles, 3,000 for technical notes, case reports, commentaries and short communications.

Introduction: this report is a documentation of a staff risk stratification programme, undertaken in University of Benin Teaching Hospital, with outcomes, and the actions taken to protect staff. Methods: an adapted risk stratification tool was circulated to all staff through their respective heads of departments/units. Staff were expected to voluntary assess their health and risk status in the context of COVID-19, using the tool. A central multi-disciplinary screening committee assessed submissions and invited staff who required further evaluation for physical interviews. Respondents were categorized into three risk/exposure groups from lowest to highest - A, B, and C, based on their individual health assessments, occupational exposures, and information obtained from direct interviews. Results: the committee received submissions from 746 staff, representing 19.4% (about a fifth) of the hospital’s 3,840 staff. One hundred and twenty two of these were invited for physical interviews, of whom 88 (72.1%) were categorized as high risk (Category C): pregnancy (53.4%); bronchial asthma (19.3%); hypertension (11.4%); cancer (3.4%) and sickle cell disease (2.3%); fractures and pulmonary tuberculosis (1%, respectively). These staff were recommended for redeployment from areas of high risk exposure to COVID-19. Conclusion: a management-driven risk assessment of hospital staff in preparation for the COVID-19 pandemic revealed that a fifth of staff assessed themselves as being vulnerable to adverse outcomes from exposure. It is our hope that similar risk stratification programmes will become standard practice in healthcare facilities during disease outbreaks, especially in Africa.