By Asma’u Ahmad
Edo State Government said it will domesticate the National Health Act in order to boost health care delivery in the state.
Governor Godwin Obaseki stated this on Monday night in Benin, the state capital after a two-day workshop organised by the state government with the theme: `Remodeling Health Care Delivery in Edo State: New Vision, New Horizon.’
Governor Godwin Obaseki
The workshop was chaired by the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Osagie Enahire. Governor Obaseki said that the state House of Assembly should be able to examine the provisions of the Act and got it domesticated within 90 days.
The governor also disclosed that a health master plan would be finalised for the state based on the recommendations of the workshop. He said a team would be drawn from the participants at the workshop to help formulate the health master for the state.
Mr. Obaseki stressed the commitment of his administration to remodel the state’s health sector. “We must begin to see our health system as an ecosystem where resources can easily flow between the public and private health sectors. We are ready to have consultations on how to collaborate private providers into our state’s health plan.
“I am prepared to open up the reconstructed Central Hospital and give it to whoever will be able to manage the facility,” he said. The governor also called on health practitioners to explore the potentials of traditional medicine as a way of complementing conventional medicine.
In his remarks, Dr. Enahire said providing affordable basic primary health care was necessary in order to reduce preventable deaths in the state.
He also stressed the need to make health care services more affordable, especially at the rural communities, and appealed to the state to implement a health insurance scheme.
