By Asma’u Ahmad
The Oyo State Government says it will commence the disbursement of funds redeemed from the health endowment towards the rehabilitation of hospitals across the state in February.
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Azeez Adeduntan, disclosed this during a ministerial briefing on Tuesday in Ibadan. Newsmen report that the state government had in August 2017 launched a N50 billion health endowment fund aimed at repositioning hospitals across the state for quality healthcare delivery.
Dr Azeez Adeduntan
He said that the rehabilitation exercise scheduled to commence with Adeoyo State Hospital would be upgraded to a world standard. Adeduntan said that the state government received pledges close to a billion naira during the launch, out of which less than N100 million had been redeemed.
“Less than N100 million has been released from close to a billion naira pledges made at the endowment fund. Let me inform you that no kobo has been spent from the money released,” he said.
He said that the state would soon launch the Cardiovascular Centre at the Adeoyo State Hospital. The commissioner said that 40,000 residents were already covered in the state Health Insurance Scheme aimed at delivering affordable healthcare services to the residents.
He added the state government would soon mandate the insurance scheme of all the civil servants, saying it is N650 monthly and N8,000 annually. Adeduntan dismissed allegations of negligence and ineptitude levelled against the staff of Adeoyo State Hospital over the death of Femi Oluwajobi of Fresh FM.
The commissioner said that the deceased was attended to at the Adeoyo State Hospital and referred to the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, before he finally passed on.
“We have all the documents to prove this and we are ready to face any challenge on this. The State Government would not trade words with Fresh FM on this issue. As a media organisation that informs and educate the people, I think it should desist from misleading the public on sensitive issues like this,” he said.
He said the on-going face-off between resident doctors of LAUTECH Teaching Hospital and the State Government would soon be resolved.
