12th May, 2023
By Jethro Ibileke
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, has said that the nation’s politicians have failed to provide a quality healthcare system for its people.
He stated this on Wednesday during a courtesy call by members of the Committee of Medical Directors in Nigeria, during a courtesy visit at the Government House in Benin City.
The Committee was led on the courtesy visit by the Chief Medical Director of Uyo University Teaching Hospitals (UUTH), Prof. Emmanuel Bassey.
Obaseki noted that all Nigerians are at risk, unless the healthcare system is strengthened, blamed the ordeal of former Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, on the nation’s decaying health system.
He said: “If we don’t strengthen our healthcare system, we are all at risk. We need to collaborate to build a resilient healthcare system for the benefit of our people.
“Those who have the privilege of working at the federal level should help us pull the system to the level it should be.”
“UBTH has been producing doctors for over 50 years and during COVID-19 when we needed doctors, we found about 5, 000 of them. If we have the core building blocks, which are the doctors, nothing should hold us back.
“We have been producing doctors and exporting them abroad in the last decades. What went wrong? We would not have succeeded in our medical profession if we left it worse than we met it.”
The Edo state Governor reaffirmed his government’s commitment to strengthening the state’s healthcare system.
Earlier the head of the head of the CMDs, Prof. Emmanuel Bassey, commended the Governor for his sustained investment in health and other sectors of the state’s economy.
Bassey who described Obaseki as one of the best-performing governors in the country, acknowledged his sustained investment and commitment to repositioning the healthcare sector, especially in strengthening the primary healthcare system and his strides across all sectors of in the State.
According to him, “We are not a political committee but a policy and advocacy group. We meet to deliberate and advocate for effective and sustainable policies, especially on tertiary healthcare of the country. We thank you for the support given to the Edo State healthcare system.
“We want to thank you for your strides in the healthcare delivery system. We thank you for strengthening the primary healthcare system in the State as without that foundation we cannot get tertiary healthcare as most of the challenges we face would have been solved in the primary healthcare centres.
“You are very strong in healthcare financing and we thank you for the Edo State Health Insurance Scheme. We thank you for the support for the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH) especially during the COVID-19 era as 60 percent of COVID-19 testing was done in UBTH.”
Prof Bassey who thank the Governor immensely, added, “the truth is that you are one of the best-performing governors in this whole country, politics aside. We wish you the best in your future endeavors.”