By Olamide FAKEYE
Nigeria – The Ogun State government has proposed to rehabilitate 472 Primary Healthcare Centers (PHCs), in the second tenure of Governor Dapo Abiodun, to consolidate the present administration’s recent gains in the health sector.
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Tomi Coker, who revealed this during a retreat, organised for the leadership in the Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) in the health sector, as well as health facilities across all levels, said 100 PHCs had been successfully rehabilitated in the first tenure.
Dr. Coker, according to the Ministry spokesman, Goke Gbadamosi, added that government had invested massively in the renovation and equipping of the Centres with qualified health personnel and introduction of tricycle ambulances, among others, assuring that the strides would be sustained during the second term in office.
The Commissioner stated that the health sector had become a fertile ground for innovative ideas, such as the ‘Hub and Spoke’ model of healthcare system and worthy of emulation among comity of states, saying the Federal Government was set to roll out the initiative for improved maternal health.
“In 2022, we decided to pilot the Hub and Spoke model of delivery of health care. His Excellency invested in ambulances and supported the formulation of a policy where we had a guideline of referral methods from the Traditional Birth Attendants to the PHCs to secondary facilities and then the tertiary. From our findings after 6 months, we realised that we have existing resources in the system to deliver better healthcare services and saw a 40 percent increase in referrals from PHCs to secondary facilities’’, she said.
Speaking on the significance of the retreat, the Commissioner said the meeting was conceived as a means of improving on the Ogun State Strategic Improvement Plan (OGSHIP) for the health sector, which was developed during a similar retreat in 2019.
One of the participants, Chief Medical Director, Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH), Dr. Olubunmi Fatungase, according to Gbadamosi said the retreat was an opportunity for leaders in the sector to cross-fertilise ideas on how to strengthen the healthcare system.
