The Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, speaks on the challenges facing the health sector:

 

The poor attitude of health workers caused a lot of concern this year. How will you address this trend?

We are strengthening monitoring in the state and I have a good example. The Health Facility Monitoring and Accreditation Agency in the state is monitoring private hospitals in Lagos. We have also mandated the agency to monitor public hospitals in the state. Now, members of the agency must visit two public hospitals every week.

 

In a certain hospital, we are engaging members of the community to act as our ears. We shall also replicate this in public hospitals in the state. If you remember, there was an incident at the Rauf Aregbesola Health Centre at Egbeda, which led to the death of a mother and her child. I established an investigative committee headed by a consultant to look into the case. The committee has produced its report and I have forwarded it to the head of service for necessary action.

 

I have gone to some hospitals clandestinely to get a firsthand experience of what is happening there and I have my own stories to tell. In any system, there are bad eggs but we are going to increase surveillance in our hospitals aggressively.

 

The multi-million naira Bola Tinubu Diagnostic Centre at LASUTH seems to have been abandoned, what is responsible for this?

We did not plan for what happened at the centre and we are not happy about it. We entered a public-private partnership with a company to recruit, control and manage the facility, while the state government will provide infrastructure and equip it. We are in the process of terminating the engagement because it has put the government in a difficult position.

 

Meanwhile, we are upgrading all the facilities at the centre. For instance, the CT scan and other equipment are obsolete and we are going to change them. That is our first plan for next year.

 

Besides, we are overhauling facilities in health centres across the state. For instance, we have earmarked some structures at the Gbagada General Hospital for demolition; we have not carried out the action yet because we want to make alternate arrangements.

 

Ayinke House has been closed for renovation since 2010. When will the facility be open to the public?

The contractors handling the renovation messed it up. They had internal problems and they could not meet with the completion date of the project. The former administration even tried to help them yet they failed so we had to terminate the contract.

 

As we speak, we are incurring demurrage on the equipment we imported for use in the facility. However, we have re-awarded the project to another contractor who has promised to complete it soon.

 

Finance has been a challenge in the sector, how is the state addressing this?

Well, the new administration has allocated about 9.2 per cent of the state’s budget to health and this is the highest we have had in many decades. But 75 per cent of it is going for salaries, pensions and other recurrent expenditure.

 

Yet, we must equip and refurbish all our hospitals so that they are purpose-built. We must also provide quality care. Even the entire budget cannot finance free health for all in the state. Let us bear in mind that 30 per cent of those who visit public hospitals in Lagos are from Ogun, Oyo and as far as Osun.

 

We are going to be shying away from free health for all now and be looking at health insurance to fund the sector. The National Health Insurance Scheme is not able to achieve much because it is not mandatory. Our plan is to make health insurance mandatory.

 

Excepts from an interview with Bukola Adebayo

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