Kwara Has Recorded 35% Rise in Public Hospital Patronage, Says Deputy Gov

Hammed Shittu in Ilorin

The Kwara State government said it has recorded at least 35 per cent rise in hospital patronage since the beginning of the new administration.

The Deputy Governor, Kwara State, Mr. Lekan Alabi who spoke at the closing ceremony of the free medical and surgical interventions for 500 patients at the General Hospital Ilorin recently, said the rise was due to the ongoing focus of government on basic healthcare delivery to the people of the state.

The surgical interventions, in which some 500 persons benefitted, was sponsored by the state government in partnership with the Kwara State Association of Nigeria, North America (KSANG) and Sakinah Medical Outreach.

According to him, “we will make sure that all our primary health centres are properly run and functioning very well and the government will also equip hospitals to meet the medical needs of the people.

“What you have seen here is a direction of where we are going and we will work harder to bring good healthcare delivery to the people of the grassroots.”

Alabi, who represented Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq at the event, said the government was determined to secure the services of qualified health personnel to provide quality healthcare services in the state.

Special Adviser on Health Matters to the Governor, Prof. Wale Sulaiman in his remarks, explained that the just concluded surgical mission was a follow-up to the medical mission held across the three senatorial districts where about 2500 patients were attended to by volunteer doctors from Sakinah Medical Outreach.

“The combined medical and surgical mission is one of those key emergency strategies that will bring immediate relief to people with common ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, infectious and noninfectious diseases.”

Sulaiman, who facilitated the surgical interventions, noted that the it had brought immediate relief to patients who would have been waiting for years due to lack of funds to access medical care.

The Director General of the State Hospital Management Bureau, Dr. Oladimeji Aluko, commended the government for addressing the immediate healthcare of the people, saying that 70 per cent of the beneficiaries were indigent Kwarans.

Aluko said the last four months of AbdulRazaq’s administration has seen between 30 and 35 per cent rise in patients who patronise state-owned hospitals as a result of rising public trust in the government and its interventions like payment of counterpart funds, free malaria treatment and anti-polio vaccination.

Dr Aluko added that the Bureau, in collaboration with the Special Adviser on Health Matters, would come up with a mapping system of zoning hospitals in the state with one referral centre in the each zone.

The Chief Medical Director of the General Hospital Ilorin, Prof Abdulfatai Olokoba, said the commissioning of the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital was a plus, adding that with the purchase of oxygen concentrator, patient monitors, paediatric sphygmomanometer, automatic defibrillators, oxygen cylinders, and manual and electrical suction machines, patients will be better attended to.

The Head of the Sakinah Medical Outreach, Dr Yusuf Salman lauded the government for the programme, adding that it has brought succour to the poor.