By Jamiu Ganiyu
In order to ensure that medical doctors in public hospitals in Osun State give their best in terms of efficient service delivery to the people of the state, the speaker of the state House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Timothy Owoeye has said the state parliament under his leadership would introduce a law which if become operational would ban medical doctors in public service in the state to own private clinics except they have been in service for a minimum of 20 years.
The Speaker of the state parliament dropped this hint yesterday while delivering his goodwill message at the turning of the sod of the extension of the state specialist hospital, Asubiaro, Osogbo, the state capital, conducted by Governor Gboyega Oyetola.
Rt. Hon. Timothy Owoeye said experience has shown that health workers in the public service prefer to refer patients in the public hospitals to their private clinics for their personal gains thereby sabotaging the efforts of the government in the provision of efficient health care delivery to the citizenry.
He, however, made a passionate appeal to the Governor of the state, Mr. Gboyega Oyetola, to provide a suggestion box in the state specialist hospital which the key would be kept at the House of Assembly for members of the public to bare their minds on the attitude of the workers in the hospital and also to get efficient feedback mechanism.
Earlier, in his goodwill message, the Permanent Secretary Hospital Management Board, Dr. Dayo Olaluwoye disclosed that Staff of the board was elated with the decision to build a new structure for the hospital. He described it as a mark of good vision and providing medical services to the people. In his words, “the insurance health scheme further attests to the will of the administration to care for the less privileged in the society. The governor had through his policy within the time in office showed that the health of the populace is a priority for his administration”.
In the same vein, Dr. Hakeem in his goodwill message said the governor was disappointed with facilities on the ground when he first visited the hospital, which prompted his decision to give it a befitting status of a specialist hospital. He said other structures in the hospital have been enjoying facelift and the structure to be built would further enhance healthcare delivery services.
Today turning of the sod of the extension of the state specialist hospital, Asubiaro, was part of the health care revitalization programme effort of the state which was sourced from the federal government-facilitated World Bank’s Save One Million Lives (SOML) initiative in which Osun got 20.547 million dollars, having come second in the contest.