Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State on Friday said that his administration would soon introduce the National Health Insurance Scheme to the state as part of efforts to improve the healthcare delivery of his government.
The governor, who disclosed this while receiving the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, who paid him a courtesy call in his office in Ibadan, also said that the “Abiyamo Programme” being proposed by his administration would come on stream in the next two weeks.
He said that the NHIS scheme to be introduced in the state would be community-based and that all strata of the society would be involved so as to improve the health status of the people.
Ajimobi also expressed his administration’s commitment to the eradication of malaria, which he described as one of the highest killer diseases in the state.
The governor said that it would do the people of the state a lot of good if malaria was wiped out, adding that part of the efforts at eradicating diseases was the introduction of free health mission through which over 300,000 people had been treated across the state free of charge.
He also stressed the need for government to consider a Public-Private Partnership arrangement with key professionals in the health sector, intervention partners and service companies in order to improve the health status of the people.
Ajimobi, while commending the Chief Medical Director of the University College Hospital, Ibadan for his professional and administrative acumen as well as the quality of the personnel in the health institution, said that his administration had been collaborating with UCH.
“I am glad that with the support of the CMD and other professionals at the UCH, Oyo State will be one of the best in term of health care delivery,” he said.
Earlier in his remarks, the minister had said that he was on a maiden two-day working visit to UCH to see the progress the hospital had made in the past years, the challenges it had been facing and to inaugurate some projects.
Chukwu commended the collaboration and good working relationship between the state government and UCH, saying: “That is the way it should be.”
He urged the state government to do more by engaging consultants for state hospitals and other collaborative efforts that would include training and re-training of medical personnel to enhance good service delivery.
The minister also called for the introduction of social health insurance scheme that would cover both formal and informal sectors of the economy and would be run by respective communities based on their peculiarities and what suited their purposes.
He said that the Federal Government would be willing to partner with the state government and provide financial assistance that would cover the treatment of children under five years and pregnant women.
Chukwu also commended Ajimobi and his Osun State counterpart, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, for amicably resolving the crisis that rocked the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, which he said had also threatened the continued existence of LAUTECH Teaching Hospital in Osogbo.
He decried situations whereby politics was being played with hospitals, saying that they (hospitals) were sacred places that should not be subjected to political considerations.