Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State on Friday expressed his administration’s readiness to provide quality primary health care services to people in the state.
Ambode spoke at the State House, Alausa when members of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation paid him a courtesy visit.
He said the state government welcomed partnership and support from the private sector and international organisations on health care delivery in the state.
The governor said the visit was significant, describing it as “an energiser” to his campaign promises to bring governance back to the communities.
Ambode commended the foundation for considering the state in its new integrated health care programme.
He said: “I thank the foundation for considering the state.
“The local government is paramount in terms of health care services.
“We are ready to create the platform to support the programme and improve on health care delivery.”
Earlier, Carlos Cuellar, Deputy Director of Integrated Delivery Global Development of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said the foundation was seeking partnership with the state government.
Cuellar said the foundation had some plans and programmes to strengthen health care system in the state.
Cuellar said despite the tremendous efforts the government and donor agencies had made in the country, the health outcomes were still insufficient.
He said: “We concluded, based on information that we have available, that under-performance of the primary health care system is not as a result of lack of efforts.
“It is rather an indication that there are root causes that need to be addressed.”
He said there were some challenges holding back the primary health care system performance in Lagos and other states.
Cuellar said: “What we are proposing is a partnership for primary health care transformation.
“We are also proposing to enter into partnership that will not just aim at improving gradually the primary health care system, but to address the root causes.
“We also intend to produce transformation, which will move the current level of the sector to a higher and more performing level in an irreversible manner.”
Cuellar said the provision of health care to the poor and vulnerable was one of the major priorities of the foundation.
NAN.