In furtherance of our efforts geared towards monitoring of government’s activities and dissemination of such to the people of Oyo state, we at Good Governance Advocates (GGA) have beamed our searchlight into the trajectories of Oyo state health care delivery system across a ten year period.
Since it is an established fact that quality healthcare is the foundation of a thriving society, where citizens can live, work, and contribute without the weight of preventable illnesses, creating awareness regarding our health sector’s trajectory will enable the Oyo State citizenry to make informed choices ahead of 2027 general elections.
A critical study of the data gathered from reliable sources revealed that Governor Seyi Makinde led administration has transformed Primary Healthcare (PHC), secondary healthcare (SHC) and tertiary healthcare (THC) in Oyo State by bringing basic healthcare closer to communities through mass PHC upgrades and staffing.
Unlike what used to be the norms in the past where programmes of such importance are limited to a particular section of the state or cornered by certain sections of the Governor’s cabal, this time around Governor Makinde ensured that the free medical programme was conducted in each of the 33 Local Governments while also extended the gesture to the Physically Challenged Peoples, Pensioners and the state’s Civil Servants.
These achievements demonstrate a multi-dimensional improvement in healthcare readiness, accessibility, and quality in Oyo State since 2019 when the mantle of governance fell on the present administration.
While analyzing the data garnered across a decade of governance in Oyo state, it is pertinent to state that there has been a strategic efforts towards improvement of health care infrastructure, recruitment of healthcare personnel, training and retraining of existing and newly employed medical personnel . This holistic approach has led to significant reduction in mortality rates in Oyo State.
“There has been a marginal decrease in Maternal Mortality with live birth reducing from 296/100,000 (Ore-Seyi Makinde led administration) to 244/100,000 live births while Neonatal Mortality has been reduced from 30/1,000 live births to 17/1,000 live births and Infant Mortality experienced a significant reduction from 41/1,000 live births to 18/1,000 live births.
“These reductions in mortality rates are not unconnected with Governor Seyi Makinde’s strategic policy executions which include; a staggering two hundred and sixty-six percentage enrollment in Oyo State Health Insurance scheme, two hundred and sixty-five percentage increment in Primary Healthcare Centers which have been renovated and equipped, and free health mission in which over 500,000 residents benefited from medical and surgical interventions”.
Having rescued Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH) from the shackles of redundancy and retrogression upon assumption of office by taking the institution’s full ownership, Governor Makinde went further to take some important steps in ensuring that the teaching hospital performs its primary duties of providing specialized medical care, training of medical students, residents and other healthcare professionals as well as contributions to advancement and evidenced-based practices.
Knowing full well that highly motivated personnel is critical to the achievements of set goals behind LAUTECH ‘s full acquisition, the State Governor thereafter embarked on certain decisive measures, some of which include;
“Increment of the teaching hospital’s monthly subvention by ₦35 million to ease operational challenges; giving approval to the payment of accumulated promotion arrears and offsetting minimum wage arrears; provision of ₦80,000 monthly stipends for eighty-five non-staff security personnel thus integrating them into the hospital system and lastly, Governor Makinde directed the prompt constitution of the Governing Council to address structural and welfare issues.
“These measures by the state governors led to the suspension of the age-long strike and consequently resumption of full services”.
Beside Oyo, Ogbomoso and Ibadan, the Oke-Ogun area of Oyo State has also had a fair share of Governor Makinde’s health revitalization as there were significant renovations of General Hospital, Tede and Specialist Hospital at Saki have been upgrade to key secondary facilities .
Ademola Alabi (JP), ANIPR, ANIMN, is the Coordinator of Good Governance Advocates (GGA) and former Publicity Secretary of Central Council of Ibadan indigenes (CCII)
