Osun State Governor, Mr Adegboyega Oyetola, has called on indigenes and residents in the State to take greater advantage of the health facilities available in the state to ensure a more productive and prosperous society.
He also enjoined healthcare workers in the state on the need to especially educate women on the options available to them to access maternal and child health.
The Governor who made this known during the flag off of the Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, said his administration has revitalised nine General Hospitals and 332 Primary Health Centres across every Ward, as part of efforts to ensure access of everyone to the best of health care services.
He added that the Osun Health Insurance Scheme, which is not functional and already delivering value, is another intervention that his administration has put in place to ensure qualitative health care in the state.
Oyetola, who was represented by his deputy, said these interventions, were part of the development agenda of his government and part of a holistic initiative that takes care of the people in all spheres.
He, however, decried the high infant mortality rate in Nigeria, which he said calls for concerted efforts by all.
According to him: “This event is another testament to the resolve of our government to deliver sustainable healthcare to our people. It offers another opportunity to sensitize our mothers on their roles and responsibilities to themselves and their children and to interact with them first-hand to elicit their inputs as we constantly find new ways to serve them and our future generation better.
“Ours is a government that is irredeemably committed to serving our people and we have constantly demonstrated this through our Development Agenda which is crafted to render stellar services in all sectors. The health of our people is a critical component of the agenda as we regard health as the springboard and foundation of all our interventions.
“Our health programmes have maternal, newborn and children components and they are put together to target our newborns and children and take care of them as they grow. The Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week we are observing is a proof of the importance we place on giving the best healthcare services to our people and while drastically reducing maternal and child mortality rate.
“From the revitalization of Nine General Hospitals and 332 Primary Health Centres, one per ward across the State, to the institution of National Insurance Scheme, to the implementation of the revised Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) and Consolidated Health Workers Salary Structure (CONHESS) for healthcare workers in the State, among others, we are consciously building a healthy and strong young population and empowering our youths and adults for a collective task of state and nation building. Let me emphasise that all these health interventions have maternal, newborn and children’s components and imports.
“We are doing all of these, conscious that our mothers are the channels for the future that we seek and that our newborns and our infants are the hopes and the face of the sustainable Osun that our Development Agenda is designed to build”.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Special Adviser to the Governor on public health, Dr Olasiji Olamiju, hinted that the health week Programme provided an opportunity to improve the physical and mental health of children, through the administration of vitamin A to children of age 0 to five.
Other opportunities according to him include immunization against different diseases, HIV, family planning counseling as well as deworming exercise.
In their separate remarks, the State representative of UNICEF, Mr Solomon Isreal, World Health Organization state representative, Dr Bello Harmed and representative of the State Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Pharmacist Faseyi Abiola, commended Governor Adegboyega Oyetola’s administration for it’s commitment to healthy living of the citizenry, as they promised the continuous support of their various agencies towards sustainable health care service in Osun.
