CHIEF Executive Officer, First Health Dynamics Energy International Limited, Professor Temitope Alonge, has described the appraisal of the renovated status of the 351 primary health care facilities across Oyo State as an important step to further upgrade and compete with the renovation of outstanding ones, therefore, ensuring these facilities become the first point of call for health care, particularly at the grassroots.
Alonge, speaking on the sideline of an event to hand over reports on all the PHCs designated for renovation across the state to the Commissioner for Health, Dr Oluwaserimi Ajetumobi, said the review was to guide perfecting PHCs not done properly and further upgrading those that are functional.
He stated that the detailed scoping documents included not only pictures of the PHCS, both inside and outside but also their infrastructure, availability of potable water, availability of accommodation for staff and functionality.
“The basis of this is to allow the government to be able to make decisions on upgrading the PHCs, which is now the priority of the government of Oyo State under Omituntun 2.0.
“Recently, the governor made it clear during the budget debate that the budget for health, which ranked second in terms of funds to be made available, was to address the upgrading of PHCs and the completion of the outstanding ones that were not done under Omituntun 1.0.
“Of course, the upgrade will be done in phases, so that it does not overwhelm the government, and whatever mistakes and errors were made in the previous renovation can be improved upon. This is not only to make the PHCs across the state vibrant and efficient but the first point of call for most healthcare services.”
Professor Alonge, however, stated that it is painful that a lot of the functional PHCs across the state have been left underutilised because people were not aware of the facilities available in them.
“So, the plan is that while the upgrading is going on, we will develop an app that people can download to know the nearest PHC to them to seek immediate medical attention for their basic health care needs. Gone are the days when PHCs were viewed as health care delivery for the poor or meant only for immunisation purposes,” he added.
. TheWitness
