With a unique free health care and welfare package for elders, Ekiti State is second to none in life-friendly policy in Nigeria
Through the Ministry of Health, Fayemi confronted the high mortality rate recorded in the state due to chronic illnesses that claim lives of the residents. For instance, with its Surgical Festivals, the state under his administration has rendered medical assistance to people that could not afford the cost of health care and also sends patients that require renal transplant abroad. The festival also offers free treatment for people with cataract, hernia and cases of cervix, ovary and breast cancer. “We have a lot of people with chronic illnesses and many of them just die carelessly because there is no care. Since 2011, about 687,000 people, which is about 25 to 30 per cent of the population of the state, have benefitted from the festivals. This type of medical intervention and welfare package was not part of the Awolowo health care,” said Olusola Fasuba, Commissioner for Health, who started medical practice in 1981.
In 2012 and 2013, the state government spent about N130 million on patients who could not afford the cost of medical services due to financial constraints and another set of 43 people have been shortlisted for medical assistance at a cost of about N45 million in few months. Also, about N18 million was spent to acquire prosthetics, wheelchair and other aid materials that were distributed to physically challenged people.
Fayemi also confronted the challenge of broken down and sub-standard infrastructure with a very ambitious campaign against ‘old hospital structure’. He launched the campaign to rebuild the entire health system, from primary to tertiary levels to avail people of the state of quality health care at home instead of travelling to other cities in the country or abroad. To this end, the government has provided the 313 primary health centres spread across 137 wards with minimum requirements like senior health officers, nurses, laboratory technicians and medical doctors. In other to strengthen the state’s capacity for effective delivery of health services to its people, a total of 4,535 health workers benefited from various training programmes. Mary Omotosho, deputy coordinator, Ado Ekiti Local Government Health Centre, described the development as a landmark achievement in terms of human capacity development in the health sector. She confirmed that transformation has improved the maternal and child health care system in the state. “The governor introduced free health care in the centres in the state. We take care of pregnant women from the day they found they are pregnant till the delivery date without collecting a dime from them, we also treat under-five children and that has reduced the mortality rate among this group in my centre,” she disclosed.
The acting CMD equally confirmed the existence of a new Accident and Emergency Unit and the renovation of the Male Surgical Ward at the EKSUTH as well as the construction of a new laboratory extension block equipped with the state-of-the-art facilities. “Without any doubt, the improved service delivery in the health sector of the state coupled with the newly introduced Ambulance and Emergency Services alongside complementary purchase and donation of eight modern ambulances with Intensive Care accessories will desirably complement health care delivery across the state. It is an indication that Governor Fayemi has fulfilled his electioneering campaign promises in the health sector of the state,” Ogundipe added.
To mark his third anniversary, the Governor commissioned Funmilayo Olayinka Mammogram Centre and Cancer Research Centre, a research institute named in memory of Funmilayo Olayinka, former deputy governor of the state, who died of breast cancer. Abimbola Solanke, project manager of the centre, explained that the institute has been handling several cancer- and heart-related cases. She added that the centre is designed to forestall another loss to the dreaded disease with its ultra-modern, state-of-the-art diagnostic centre.
According to Fasuba, the development and other feats achieved by Fayemi’s administration have attracted some international ratings. He said the state started witnessing a turnaround in the health sector in 2011, after Governor Fayemi came on board and that is because he realised that it is only healthy individuals that can contribute meaningfully to the local per capita income. He discloses: “Now, we are one of the highly rated states with the best life expectancy. After the World Bank conducted a study on us, we became one of the states that have the lowest maternal mortality, highest number of pregnant women attended to by key birth attendants and even the number of registrations in our hospitals has gone up considerably because of this health policy and agenda. The rate of mortality in under-five children has reduced in the last three years.”
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