FG sends N420m to each state to revitalise healthcare centres

The federal government has released N420 million to each of the 36 states and the federal capital territory to revitalise primary healthcare centres, Isaac Adewole, minister of health, has said.

Adewole disclosed this in Ibadan on Monday, shortly after he paid a working visit to the University College Hospital (UCH).

He said the grant, which was released on July 14, 2016, is seed money from the federal government to assist the states revitalise primary healtcare centres in their areas.

He expressed the hope that with a revitalised primary health care sector, “there will be a reversal of influx of patients into our tertiary health facilities in the states”.

Adewole said the states that perform well would be given more money in the subsequent years as a way of compensating them for a job well-done.

He added that a monitoring mechanism had been put in place to ensure that the money was judiciously spent and that the revitalisation efforts were extended to the rural areas as well.

“Each state should ensure that a local government has at least one comprehensive primary healthcare centre,” he said.

“This will decongest teaching hospitals and make specialist hospitals to function very well.”

On his working visit, the minister explained that the UCH is capable of handling any medical case with the available manpower and facilities.

He said the hospital is in the best position to reverse medical tourism based on the available manpower and facilities he saw in the hospital.

In a chat with reporters, Temitope Alonge, chief medical director of UCH, described the visit of the minister as “a homecoming.”

He said Adewole was on loan to the federal government, since he was formerly provost of the college of Medicine, and immediate past vice-chancellor, University of Ibadan.

“We are particularly pleased to welcome the minister home,” he said.

“He has pledged support in funding and logistics to ensure that UCH becomes a referral centre of medical tourism in Nigeria. We are the best and we shall remain at the top in the delivery of quality health care in the country.”