Good Health For All: ST Tamandu Marine Patrol Brings Relief to LASUTH Patients
By Our Correspondent
More than thirty members of ST Tamandu Marine Patrol converged on the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, in what organisers described as the chapter’s Annual Humanitarian Day visit, themed Good Health For All. The delegation arrived bearing a collection of relief materials, including food items, toiletries, and essential household supplies, donated directly to patients and the hospital’s welfare unit.
The visit, led by Sailing Skipper Ojong Bassey, was organised as a direct expression of ST Tamandu Marine Patrol’s commitment to Service to Humanity, the founding mandate of De Norsemen Kclub International under which the patrol operates. It was, by any measure, a day that went beyond the symbolic.
The patrol was received by the Head of the Patient Wards, who expressed gratitude for the visit and guided the delegation through the wards. What the members encountered there brought the purpose of the day into sharp focus. Patients who had completed their treatment and were medically cleared for discharge remained in their beds, unable to leave because they could not settle their outstanding hospital bills. Three such patients were identified by ward staff as being in immediate need.
ST Tamandu Marine Patrol settled the discharge bills of all three patients on the spot. Each was able to leave the hospital that day.
It is a reality that rarely makes headlines but is quietly familiar to anyone who has spent time in a Nigerian public hospital. Patients trapped not by illness but by poverty, recovered in body but held in place by a system that cannot always bridge the gap between treatment and departure. The intervention by ST Tamandu Marine Patrol did not solve that systemic problem. But for three families, it changed what that day looked like.
Speaking during the visit, Sailing Skipper Ojong Bassey said the theme Good Health For All was not chosen as a slogan but as a challenge. “Good health should not be a privilege,” he told those gathered. “When we come to a place like this, we are reminded of how much work remains and how much each one of us can do when we choose to show up.”
The Head of the Patient Wards commended the patrol for the depth of its engagement, noting that the decision to go beyond material donations and address the discharge crisis directly was both unusual and deeply appreciated. Hospital staff, she said, often witness the distress of patients and families caught in that situation with no immediate recourse.
ST Tamandu Marine Patrol is the Lagos chapter of De Norsemen Kclub International, a non-profit organisation incorporated under RC 7458. Its community programmes span education, healthcare outreach, youth development, and advocacy across Lagos. The LASUTH visit forms part of a broader calendar of humanitarian activities the patrol has committed to sustaining through the year.
Three patients walked out of LASUTH that afternoon who might not have. That is the measure that matters most.
For more information about ST Tamandu Marine Patrol and its community programmes, visit www.santatamandu.org
