Ondo State Government has distributed medical equipment to health centres across the 18 local government areas of the state. The State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, said the gesture was part of the administration’s effort at ensuring that at least one unit of a well-equipped, standardised and functional laboratory was available at each council area in the state.
Speaking in Akure, the state capital, Akeredolu said his administration was commited to improving the health and wellbeing of all citizens of the state.
According to him, the exercise is the first phase of equipping primary health facilities with the minimum service package pillar of the Primary Health Care Under One Roof policy of the Federal Government.
He said, “One striking feature of some of the equipment is that proper cognisance was taken of the infrastructural profile of our communities. For instance, because a number of the communities where our primary health facilities are located do not have sufficient and regular power supply, government has ensured that oxygen concentrators procured are those with in-built uninterrupted power supply.
“This is to ensure prolonged usage of the equipment to deliver oxygen to persons needing it, especially children with severe respiratory distress, which has claimed many lives of children less than five years of age.”
In his remarks, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Wahab Adegbenro, said the upgrade of primary healthcare in Ondo State would usher in a disease-free environment.
The Executive Secretary of the State Primary Healthcare Development Board, Dr Francis Akanbiemu, also said the development had shown that the governor had given the mandate to respond to the healthcare need of the citizenry.
He disclosed that hospitals were ill-equipped with only eight centres having a functioning laboratory out of 18 local government areas.