Ondo Assembly pledges support for healthcare improvement

By Josephine Oguntoyinbo
The Ondo State House of Assembly has pledged to support every effort to enhance effective healthcare provision for the people of the state.
The House Committee on Health made this pledge during a visit and inspection of projects at the State University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital, Laje, Ondo, and its annex on Hospital Road in Ondo.

The Chairman of the Committee, Dr. Christopher Ogunlana, who led other members to the facilities, commended the management and staff of the teaching hospitals for doing a great job and building on the foundation.
The Committee called for collaborative efforts among stakeholders in the sector to make the system more functional and effective, assuring that the House will continue to advocate for more development.
While noting that the vision of establishing the facilities is yielding positive results, the lawmakers hinted that the government is working on improving staff welfare.
Members, who added that their challenges are well noted and should be itemized and submitted to the Committee, advised that the ORANGEHIS and NHIS programs should be properly monitored to ensure that people access adequate and quality healthcare.
The Committee, which toured both facilities, encouraged the workers to continue to do their best in bridging the gap in the sector due to the brain drain of medical experts.
Earlier, the Acting Chief Medical Director at UNIMEDTH Laje Ondo, Dr. Olumide Gbala, while highlighting the activities, achievements, and challenges of the hospital, affirmed that the committee’s visit is timely, especially as the facility is undergoing major restructuring.
According to him, in the last three months, the three teaching hospitals have been doing better in terms of transformation and services.
The Acting Chief Medical Director informed that several clinics were created, research was strengthened, better staff were hired, and more equipment was purchased for the hospital. However, he pointed out that the major challenge is the high cost of electricity, which consumes about 50 percent of their revenue.
“The teaching hospital has been delivering on its mandate. In the entire 36 states, this is the only state that has been able to graduate medical students in record time, and only two states, Ondo and Lagos, have been able to train dental doctors. In a few weeks, the second set of medical doctors will graduate. In the next five years, the results will be evident in our health facilities in terms of personnel,” he averred.
At the UNIMEDTH annex, the Acting Medical Director, Dr. Adeola Akintade, described the visit as a step toward progress, emphasizing that the economic development of any state depends on the good health of its populace.
He detailed the achievements, activities, and challenges of the facility and described the restructuring of the hospital as noble.
Akintade noted that within a few months of its re-creation, the theater has been opened, and the number of patients has drastically increased. However, he noted that more health personnel are needed to run the hospital.
He posited that there should be a fair distribution of health personnel to facilities as they are working toward a common goal, while the challenge of competitive pricing of drugs should be addressed.