Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has said his government was investing hugely in revamping the state’s healthcare system.
He added that the investment would reposition the state as a medical hub with world-class equipment to deliver quality and efficient services to the people.
Obaseki, who spoke to journalists in Benin City, said the government, over the past seven years, has sustained investment in the sector, developing the right infrastructure and supporting manpower development to transform the State as a hub for medical tourism in the country.
He said: “We are making Edo and Benin in particular a healthcare hub by making sure we improve the health infrastructure and bring it up to world-class standards.
“Healthcare is more about services and human capacity.
“While we are emphasizing the hospital, the primary health care centers and clinics, we are also ensuring that we create the institutions that will train the quality people we need to provide the quality care.
“The School of Health Technology is supposed to provide manpower for our primary healthcare system and our healthcare system as a whole.
“This is why we are making it a priority and making sure that the infrastructure is ready on time for accreditation so that we can start the institution afresh before I leave office.”
Speaking on the investment in the Stella Obasanjo Hospital and efforts to expand and redesign the facility to become a medical hub, Obaseki noted, “The Out-Patient Department (OPD) is ready and the Inpatient Department is still under construction, with the wards, facilities, operational theaters and full complement of infrastructure to provide services across a wide range of areas.
“The challenge is that if we open the OPD and bring in a consultant and they want to perform a procedure, we would not want to send them to other facilities.
“We are reworking the delivery schedule to make sure that we know clearly when the inpatient department will be ready to enable us to synchronize and open one section three months before the other and not allow a long period before opening both.”
