By Sodiq Ojuroungbe
Members of the Ogun State House of Assembly have asked the management of the state Ministry of Health and Hospital Management Board to immediately replace retired health workers and continue to encourage their personnel to render quality healthcare services to the people to actualise qualitative and affordable health programmes of the state government.
The state lawmakers led by the Chairman of the House Committee on Health, Wahab Haruna made the charge during the third quarter of the 2023 budget performance appraisal of Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Government in the State held at the Assembly Complex, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.
Haruna noted that though the Assembly was conscious of the constraints facing the sector, there was a need to give their best to continue to render health and life-saving care to patients in their various facilities in the State.
Contributing, Oludaisi Elemide counselled the Management of hospitals as well as those in charge of the only tertiary health institution in the state to always ensure prompt replacement of personnel, who exited their facilities to reduce the workload on the existing manpower.
He stressed that such could be done through an immediate request to the relevant authorities.
Earlier in his presentation, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr Kayode Oladeinde said the Ministry had expended over N1.04bn between January and September 2023 on its recurrent expenditure.
A further breakdown indicated that out of the above; a total of N999.4m was expended on salaries and allowances, while over N49m was spent on other maintenance and overhead.
He assured that the Ministry would continue to monitor and inspect private health facilities to eradicate quackery in the private health sector of the state.
On her part, the Permanent Secretary in the State Hospitals Management Board, Dr. ( Mrs.) Yinka Elemide revealed that over N2.1bn was expended on salaries and allowances, just as N22.9m was paid as overhead cost for the period.
Other agencies that had their budgets appraised by the state lawmakers included Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, State Hospitals, Office of the Auditor General for the State, Ministry of Community Development and Cooperatives, as well as its Youth and Sports counterpart amongst others.
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