Oyo govt earmarks N1bn for primary health care delivery

Oyo Government says it has earmarked the sum of N1 billion for the upgrade of all Primary Health Centres (PHCs) across the state.

Governor Seyi Makinde made the disclosure on Monday during the flag off of the Free Health Mission in Kishi, headquarters of Irepo Local Government Area of Oyo State.

Makinde said that he had directed council chairmen to spend 7.5 per cent of their allocation on primary health care centres as a way of promoting good health care service delivery.

He asserted that the role of government was to steer the overall health care development, designing health care policies and programme.

He further posited that it was the duty of government to secure essential public health functions and regulating the delivery of health care services.

He noted that the decay in the health sector over the last few decades “have come to us as a recurring decimal which has to be confronted holistically and at all fronts.”

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The governor said that upgrading the primary health care delivery would allow citizens of the state to have high standards of living while mortality and morbidity rate would be kept low.

He said health care service in the state was undergoing a lot of reformation and that the free health mission was aimed at the less privileged at the grassroots who don’t have money to access treatment.

He, however, said the exercise, which would be carried out across the local government areas for the benefits of the people, was not a remedy to the identified gaps in health care service delivery.

“But it only serves as a stop-gap measure which will give the necessary time for other plans in the health sector to mature.

“Those with diabetes and high blood pressure will be treated and get free drugs,” he said.

In his remarks, Oba Lawal Arowoduye, the traditional ruler of Kishi, commended the governor for the free health care mission and urged him to sustain the good work.

The News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) reports that residents of the area with health challenges besieged the venue of the Free Health Mission at LA Primary School Agede Kishi, for medical attention.

The state deputy governor, Mr Rauf Olaniyan; Secretary to the State Government, Mrs Olubanwo Adeosun; Commissioner for Health, Dr Bashir Bello and other government functionaries were present at the occasion.

NAN