The Governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has revealed plans to constitute a council on health, which will assist in developing a Strategic Master Plan on Health and to coordinate activities of healthcare service providers in the state.
Obaseki disclosed this when he played host to members of the Institute of Health Service Administrators of Nigeria, at the Government House, Benin City, the Edo State capital, on Tuesday.
He said: “the state plans to develop a strategic health master plan to enable her outline various services offered by the health care service providers. We intend to involve qualified health professionals to assist us develop a master plan in the health sector. This will transform the health sector and make it more efficient as all elements needed to achieve this are available in the state.”
Obaseki assured that the state government is set to reform the health sector and strengthen it to deliver quality health care services to Edo people, adding, “the focus for us is to strengthen primary health care service delivery through collaboration with private investors. We also intend to improve secondary and tertiary healthcare service delivery in the future.“
Chairman, Edo State Branch of the Institute of Health Service Administrators of Nigeria, Sir. Oyaseh Ivowi, who led members of his association to the Government House, noted, “Edo State, which was the first to establish a state health and hospital management board in Nigeria with a network of hospitals and health care centers and clinics across every nook and cranny of the state, needs to develop a master plan for the health sector.”
Ivowi said that the master plan will assist the state monitor various healthcare providers in the state, ensure that they provide quality health services and provide insight to inform siting of health institutions where they are mostly required.
“A situation where health centres spring-up indiscriminately signify a dangerous trend. Such centres will likely be offering unprofessional healthcare services,” he said.
