The Executive Secretary, Oyo State Primary Health Care Board, Dr. Muyideen Olatunji has revealed that the focus of the Engineer ‘Seyi Makinde-led government in the state is to have well-equipped Primary Healthcare Centers (PHC) in the next couple of months.
He also submitted that for now, Makinde’s government is still busy upgrading and building new Primary Health Centers (PHC) across the 351 political wards in the state.
He said, “We have been able to constitute the Ward Development Committee (WDC) in Oyo state to take care of the health services in the 351 wards across the state. We have also strengthened the WDC in the existing ward-clusters across the state in order to improve the health care delivery system in the state.
“Oyo government has also provided a counterpart fund of 100 million naira which made the state to be selected as one of the beneficiaries of the basic health care provision fund courtesy of the federal government. This has enabled the state focus on strengthening, rehabilitating and upgrading health services delivery services across the existing 351 political wards across the state”.
The medical practitioner further revealed that the policy is in tandem with the concept of the ward health system, stating that the system is meant to provide affordable, qualitative, and accessible health service delivery to residents of the state.
He further warned that the management and administration of health policies should not be politicized as it may portend grave danger to the country, while reiterating the commitment of the state government to provide affordable health care services to the residents of the state.
Speaking of his duties as the administrative and technical head of the board, “The issue of health should not be politicized; it should be given to technocrats to run and should be professionally inclined to drive the process. The head of the agency should be somebody with a background in primary health care especially in community medicine and he should be able to drive the process”.
Speaking on the difference between the Oyo state primary health care board and the Hospital management board, he said, “The Hospital management board takes care of the secondary health care system while the primary health care board handles primary health care across the state. We have three tiers of health care system – the primary, secondary and the tertiary systems. Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital, Adeoyo Maternity Teaching Hospital, University College Hospital fall under the tertiary system.
“Our duties are clearly defined and there is no conflict, we are interlinked. We have linkages and referral system among one another. In governance, we are clearly defined too”.
He further stated that the board is in constant collaboration with other relevant agencies in the state to reach out to residents of Oyo state in the provision of free and affordable health care services to the people.
The medical expert made these revelations while featuring on a weekly radio show, Parrot Xtra/Ayekooto on Radio’ anchored by Olayinka Agboola and broadcast live on Splash 105.5FM, Felele Ibadan, the capital city of Oyo State last week Tuesday.
Dr. Olatunji further revealed that the board is in the process of equipping the health facilities and employing over 2,000 medical professionals across the various cadres in the health sector in order to provide qualitative health care services for the people of the state.
“We have this structure in the PHC system, in each local government, there should be at least one medical doctor, qualified nurses, midwives, pharmacy technicians, community extension workers and health officers, medical record officers and array of others health officials in the local government area.
“They are supposed to form the core of human resources at the PHC level. Oyo state has adopted the level three since it is the highest and ultimate. We are in the process of structural innovation and equipping each center with all required facilities”.
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