Oyo State Governor, Mr Seyi Makinde says his administration will make primary healthcare system functional and affordable in the state.
Makinde stated this on Tuesday during the inauguration of the newly-renovated ALGON Comprehensive Health Centre, at Eyin Grammar community, Ibadan.
He said that healthcare development was one of the priorities of his administration, and the government would continue to invest in the system.
According to the governor, the state government has developed a new funding structure for Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs), and will follow the policy of paying counterpart funding wherever it is required.
” Oyo state paid a sum of N250 million as state counterpart fund for the Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRIN) a World Bank project that commenced in March 2020.
“We paid a sum of N100 million as state counterpart fund on the Basic Health Care Fund project, also paid N19 million counterpart fund for the Integrated Medical Outreach Programme by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA).
“As I said in my One Year in Office Broadcast, we will start seeing the results of our new funding structure in the months to come.
“Before we came into office, we were determined to ensure a turnaround in our healthcare sector.
“In order to achieve this, we made health care one of the four pillars of our manifesto, the Roadmap to Accelerated Development in Oyo State 2019-2023,” he said.
Makinde said that since his administration took over the affairs of the state, it had made healthcare development one of its priorities through policies and actions.
“For example, here in Oyo state, we have 721 Primary Healthcare Centres, or PHCs for short, across the 351 political wards. Although this number is not enough, our top goal is to make what we have functional and affordable.
“So, in revitalising the PHC service system, we are starting with the strengthening of a minimum of one PHC per ward. Therefore, we are focusing on renovating and equipping 351 PHCs in the state, for a start.
“We started with the PHC in Oranyan community in Ibadan and used that as a standard for the subsequent ones,” he said.
On the Oyo State Health Insurance Agency (OYSHIA) the governor disclosed that the state had been able to register 58,000 beneficiaries for health insurance and would start mobilising the community to bring more on board.
“As our Cost-Benefit Analysis has shown, the average out-of-pocket payment for healthcare is N50,000/annum per resident of Oyo state.
“With healthcare insurance, you pay N8,000, a reduction of 84%. So, I urge you to enrol in this scheme as the officers go from house to house to mobilise residents,” he said.
Earlier, Dr Sola Akande, the Executive Secretary of the OYSHIA, said the healthcare centre was the second renovated PHC by the state government through capitation from Oyo State Health Insurance Scheme.
Akande said the facility was complete with the basic features of OYSHIA, accredited PHCs and had been equipped with medical equipment, furniture, solar power installation and a 40kva diesel electric generator.
