Gov. Adegboyega Oyetola of Osun has said that his administration is giving unprecedented priority to the health sector in the state.
The governor said this in Abuja while fielding questions at NAN Forum, a special interview programme of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Oyetola said: “ We have done very well in the area of health; we in this government believe that health is wealth.
” When we came in, we decided that we will give healthcare delivery the needed priority.
“What we did was to renovate two major general hospitals, one in Ejigbo and the other one in Ifetedo.
“As if we were waiting for the pandemic to come, so the general hospital in Ejigbo became very handy.
” That was the time we had about 127 returnees from Cote d’Ivoire and this created so much problems.
“But the fact that the hospital was there; we would have been so overwhelmed.
“So, we were able to handle the situation. We treated them there and discovered that not less than 30 had COVID-19 and they were not necessarily Osun indigenes alone; but more of other Nigerians.
“We had some from Lagos, Ekiti, Imo and others. We treated all of them before allowing them to go,’’ he said.
He added that his administration had built and renovated no fewer than 300 primary healthcare centres to ensure access to health facilities in the state.
“Apart from that, we have actually renovated and built about 300 primary health centres since we came to office. The intention is to have one per ward.
” Mind you; we have 323 wards in Osun and it is to ensure that you just leave your house and walk into a clinic instead of travelling a number of kilometres before you have access to healthcare.
“It is not just about revitalising them, they are all functional. They have all the necessary equipment and are being supplied with drugs, so if you walk into any of our centres, you will be treated like what you get in any standard hospital.
“Again, we established the Osun Health Insurance Scheme to complement the efforts of the Federal Government in the area of health.
” What that means is that you may not have the resources to take care of your health, but with a little premium, the civil servant are encouraged to use a token of their salaries to be entitled to free healthcare for themselves and four of their family members, in all aspects, including surgical operations.
“For the aged, you don’t pay anything. For those who are vulnerable, our government has made provisions of N477 million to take care of their own medical needs.
” So, at any point in time, nobody in Osun will complain of lack of inability to access healthcare. This is a major achievement which I am particularly proud of.
“In addition to that, we are building a 130-bed hospital at Asubiaro and additional 30 staff quarters for the doctors. This is to ensure that the doctors reside in the hospital and our people have 24-hour medical attention,’’ he said.
