The Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu on Monday said over 25,000 people have benefited from the present administration’s Mother and Child health Scheme, known as “Abiyamo” designed for pregnant women and under-five children in the state in two years.
The Director-General of the Ondo State Contributory Health Commission, Abiodun Oyeneyin, who disclosed this during an interview with newsmen in Akure, said the initiative was put in place by the state government to save lives
Oyeneyin said health is a fundamental human right and a critical indicator of human development and a global priority, hence the present administration has decided to accord it its pride of place.
He reiterated that the present administration is committed to reshaping the state health sector, particularly by creating a sustainable funding mechanism that lowers the financial barriers to healthcare for the citizenry.
He, however, said State Contributory Health Commission was established as an agency that coordinates, supervises, and regulates all Health Insurance to ensure residents are fit and healthy by mitigating financial barriers to affordable and qualitative health care in order to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
Oyeneyin said “by providing budgetary provision for the vulnerable groups in our midst starting from the pregnant women and for children under age five, the government made funds annually available for their premium such that all pregnant women and children under age five enrolled under the ‘Abiyamo’ maternal scheme.
This means you don’t need to pay when you need to access care at the designated mother and child hospitals across the three senatorial zones. This is what we have been doing since it was flagged off by the governor on December 3rd, 2019 and till today we have 25,000 beneficiaries.
“And in order to make it very easy, for the people to be able to enjoy the benefit, designated hospitals were chosen across the three senatorial zones so that people don’t need to travel long distances before they can have access to care.”
He explained that a mother and Child hospital has been established in the three senatorial zones of the state to serve the people better, and said “in the Central Senatorial zone, we have Mother and Child hospital in Akure and the UNIMED Teaching Hospital, Ondo town, and Akure complexes.
“In the Northern senatorial zone, we have a general hospital and specialist hospital in Ikare-Akoko. While in the Southern senatorial district we have a general hospital in Ore, a state hospital in Okitipupa, and one in Igbokoda and that is what we have been doing.
“It is an improvement on what we used to have during the previous administration which was called ‘Abiye’ and if you remember, at that time only two hospitals, so people need to travel from long distances before they can come to Mother and Child hospital in Akure and Ondo town.
“But Governor in his own wisdom, said we need to take health services closer to the people. For pregnant women, the governor also made it very easy for them by providing ‘Card Igbeayo’ which is free of charge and they will not pay any amount under the scheme.
He discloser that the state government recently designed a new scheme for public servants in the state, as part of Akeredolu’s administration’s commitment to a qualitative, improved, and accessible health care system for the citizens of the state known as the “Orange Health Insurance Scheme”
“This was flagged off by the governor on the 27th of September 2022 and this is to cater to all public servants because the governor is very mindful of the welfare of workers in Ondo state, he wants them to be productive and healthy so that they will be useful for the state and for themselves.
“For government workers, we offered them a family plan, so if you’re a government worker, that earns about 60,000 in a month, that means you’re going to contribute less than N1000 per month which will be deducted from the salary.
“This will cover the principal, the spouse, and four biological children under age 18, so if you look at the total number of public servants we are looking accumulatively at least 120,000 people.
“For the formal sector, we had a meeting with artisan groups and they have close to 400,000 people that they want to bring on board, we have market women across all the 18 local government areas, and we are going to partner with them because they have a database that is already automated.”
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