FASHOLA PROVIDE HEALTH CARE CENTER

It was all excitement for the residents of Iga-Idunganran on Lagos Island as Governor Babatunde Fashola on Thursday inaugurated the first model Primary Health Centre (PHC) co-financed by Zenith Bank Plc in the area.

The facility is the first of the 57 flagship model PHCs proposed by the state government under its PHC revitalisation programme in the 20 local government areas and 37 local council development areas (LCDAs) of the state.

Inaugurating the facility, the governor said the flagship PHC is a commitment by the state government to strengthen healthcare delivery at the grassroots. According to him, the delivery of the 24-hour facility was in redemption of his earlier promise to widen access to quality healthcare services in the state.

The governor explained that the model health centre will offer comprehensive healthcare to patients and other care seekers. Among the services are maternal services, child welfare services, primary mental health care and pharmaceutical services.

“I promised sometime ago that we would support the local governments to strengthen the PHC system in a partnership on shared responsibility basis. I promised you then that we would in the first instance deliver 57 flagship PHCs that would offer a twenty-four-hour service in each of the local government areas and local council development areas.

“The truth is that there are several hundreds of PHCs scattered across the state and some of them do not have enough staff because the local governments cannot afford it. Some of them do not have the equipment in full supply; some of them do not even have the funding, to keep their PHCs running for the full day and the night.

“Some of them are still struggling also either to renovate, rehabilitate and so on but we said we will work with you and take one, and make it a flagship in each local government area. We would have delivered 57 flag ship PHCs that work 24 hours. And that is why we are here. This is the first”, he said.

Fashola urged residents of Lagos Island to take possession of the facility by protecting it and ensuring it serves the purpose for which it is designed. The governor also implored the care givers at the PHCs to justify the confidence reposed in them by the government by taking good care of patients under their care.

He restated the commitment of the state government to improving mother and child healthcare, saying six Maternal and Child Care (MCC) centres had been delivered to demonstrate that.

Speaking, Yewande Adeshina, special adviser to the governor on public health, said the centre had attended to no fewer than 4,495 patients since it opened to the public in February. She noted that the PHC should be the closest to the people in the community, saying the government was revitalising the system through the flagship centres to improve access.

Meanwhile, Fashola has warned traders at the burnt Okobaba fire plank market in Ebute Meta against erecting structures on the site.

The governor told newsmen during his visit to the site on Thursday that the state government would not want any disorganised arrangement on the site.

He said the government had given the traders area to store their planks on the site, saying that the concession did not capture any development on the site.