The healthcare sector of the State of Osun is growing at a tremendous pace, owing to its strengthened coverage and the increased attention to it by the State Government under the administration of Governor Adegboyega Oyetola.
This was the central derivative at the Inter-ministerial press briefing organized by the Ministry of Information and Civic Orientation of the State of Osun.
Speaking during the Inter-ministerial press briefing organized by the Ministry of Information and Civic Orientation of the State of Osun, the Commissioner of Health, Dr Rafiu Isamotu, gave a precis on what the government has done so far to turn around the health sector which hitherto was in a deplorable State.
Part of the developments recorded include the revitalization of Primary Health Centres (PHCs) across the state, of which 258 have been completed as of today and already delivering services to both rural and urban dwellers of the state, including the poorest of the poor.
In doing this, Governor Oyetola has saved a number of public facilities from outright ruin under the revitalisation scheme. Some of the PHCs that had previously been overtaken by monkeys and other animals, according to reports, have been put back to shape and are already delivering values to the people of Osun.
Notably, the primary healthcare center at Arowojobe, which was first built in 1965 without toilets, and left in a dilapidated state as a result of poor management, has been revitalized, or actually rebuilt, by the current administration with all necessary facilities in place.
Beyond revitalization, the Governor, through the Ministry of Health, has also stocked the PHCs with drugs and purchased equipments for their smooth operations.
Further, the School of Nursing and Midwifery in Asubiaro Osogbo that previously had an indexing capacity of 30 students, has now earned an accreditation by the Nursing and Midwifery Council to accommodate 75 students. This portends that more nurses and midwives can be trained by the State and safely dispatched to aid the health sector.
Also, the environmental and health technological program at the college of health technology Ilesha, has been accredited. Health Information Management Course, as well as Dental Therapy Programme has been accredited at the college of health technology.
As part of the gains derived from the intervention of Governor Oyetola through the revitalization drive, the revamp of the Ejigbo Hospital was a major factor in the control of the spread of COVID-19 in the State.
We would recall that even other States of the country benefited from the functionality of the Ejigbo facility during the “Ejigbo 127” case, featuring returnees from Ivory Coast in April 2020.
Also, for the first time in the history of the State, the State specialist hospital at Asubiaro has 8-bed fully-equipped Intensive Care Unit.
The current administration has intervened in many more dimensions in the healthcare sector, ranging from renovation and expansion of state primary health care board secretariat, Kelebe; to the Installation of internet, mast, and procurement of hard and software for the State primary health care board Secretariat.
These interventions have found their footings within the meagre resources of the State, which has not affected other sectors like works and staff welfare especially.
The State of Osun was one of the States in Nigeria that got an intervention fund from Saving One Million Lives programme, a fund which is warehoused in the Central Bank of Nigeria. But pieces of evidence avail to show that the State of Osun has judiciously used its fund in alignment with the objectives and standards of the Saving One Million Lives programme.
Worthy of mention is implementation of maternal neonatal child care facilitated and sponsored through Saving One Million Lives programme, and an equity grant meant to provide health services for the poor vulnerable people.
With respect to the welfare of health workers, the Governor Oyetola approved the full implementation of Revised Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) and Consolidated Health workers’ Salary Structure (CONHESS) in order to attract medical doctors and other health workers to the State with a view to improving the shortage of health personnel in all government hospitals in the state.
Regarding the Osun Health Insurance Scheme, Governor Oyetola approved the establishment of OHIS Drug Distribution Centre, which is now supplying medicines and consumables to 16 OHIS accredited government secondary health facilities across the state in order to put an end to the perennial Out-of-Stock Syndrome of medicines in government secondary healthcare facilities for health insurance enrollees.
Many government workers and self employed as well as unemployed poor persons are benefitting from the state health insurance scheme, and so far, over 50 surgical operations ranging from hydrocelectomy to caesarian section and even bilateral below elbow amputation have been done under OHIS.
As a way of including the vulnerable in the scheme, Oyetola released the sum of four hundred and seventy-seven million, nine hundred and twelve thousand, three hundred and ten Naira (N 477,912,310) as premium for the enrollment of vulnerable citizens of Osun into the osun health insurance and scheme.
