The Oyo State Government, on Thursday, explained that the policies being implemented by the state government in the health sector have led to an overall improvement in the sector and have also helped mitigate the effects of ‘Japa’ syndrome among medical professionals.

The state’s Commissioner for Health, Dr. Oluwaserimi Ajetunmobi, disclosed this while addressing journalists at the Omituntun 2.0 Inter-Ministerial Briefing, held at the Governor’s Office in Ibadan.

Ajetunmobi noted that these policies have directly resulted in an improved quality of life for residents of the state, a reduction in maternal mortality rates, infant mortality rates, and under-5 mortality rates, as well as the upgrade of hundreds of health facilities and infrastructure.

Speaking on Thursday, the commissioner noted that the Governor Seyi Makinde administration has also improved the health sector by recruiting thousands of health professionals and enhancing their welfare to address the medical brain drain.

She listed the other achievements as including improved service delivery and training, enhanced referral linkages between primary, secondary and tertiary levels, statewide digital integration and proactive health workforce expansion, as well as elevated health access across the state, with the government renovating several other health facilities in the secondary and tertiary health sectors.

Ajetunmobi added that the state also recorded other achievements, including the recruitment of 332 healthcare workers at secondary health facilities and increment of internship quotas, ongoing data analysis on cardiovascular risk for policy development, achievement of Pre-TAS success and initiated TAS for filariasis-free LGAs, oxygen plant resuscitation and renovation of Accident & Emergency Unit of LAUTECH Teaching Hospital and accreditations for the colleges with increase in quota of students intake.

She revealed that the state government has also recorded successes with the Omituntun Free Medical Mission, which has reached hundreds of thousands of residents and enrolled over 121,000 residents, including pensioners, public primary school pupils, and persons living with disabilities, into the Oyo State Health Insurance Scheme.

Dr Ajetunmobi noted that the Makinde administration made a huge mark in the area of primary health care, saying that “in the area of Primary Health Care, Oyo State has been leading with vision, courage and action. At a time when many states are grappling with the basics of healthcare delivery, Oyo State moved far ahead, setting a powerful example of how to transform Primary Healthcare Services into a sustainable, equitable and digitally-driven system that puts people first.”

She stated that 212 Primary Healthcare Centres have been renovated and equipped, while another 87 are at various stages of completion. She explained that out of the 212 fully renovated and equipped PHCs, the government is currently revitalising 106 to become either Level 2 or Level 3 Health Facilities for Basic Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care.

The commissioner noted that 66 PHCs are being upgraded with the provision of a 10KVA Solar Inverter System for 24-hour power supply, a red brick incinerator, units of computer tablets for EMR, medical equipment such as nebulisers, pulse oximeters, oxygen cylinders, point-of-care testing kits, among others.

Speaking on how the state has been able to retain its medical professionals amid the growing challenges posed by the Japa syndrome, Ajetunmobi said that the Oyo State Government has been able to retain a good number of health professionals as a result of Governor Makinde’s foresight in improving the welfare packages of health workers and putting in place different measures to make the sector attractive to professionals.

She said, “We have about 260 medical doctors in the state. Initially, we had about 350, but because of the Japa syndrome and the fact that some people are retiring. The state government has embarked on a massive recruitment drive to reduce the deficit. In the Primary Health Care sector, we recruited about 3,933 health professionals, and we made sure we had at least one Medical Officer in each of the local governments.

“So, we have 33 new Medical Officers now. We also have some who are PHC coordinators; some of them are doctors as well, and they can go around overseeing what is going on. We could have had more, but some of our people retired and some moved out.

“Let me also say that this number excludes the doctors at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso. I think we have close to 100 doctors there. Also, they have resident doctors and medical students who are helping in the work at the LAUTECH Teaching Hospital.

“The Oyo State Government has been trying concerning funding, but you cannot prevent people from saying they want to go. Some will say they want to go for academic-related courses or Master’s degrees and they will just leave like that. So, what we have put in place is a mechanism for replacement. You go now, and immediately you are replaced by someone who wants to work.

“Another thing that we have been able to do is that some of our retired consultants or retired personnel who are agile and are still willing to work, we give them the opportunity to come in and work. They are the ones who will now say, ‘Okay, I’ll come two times a week or three times a week.’ That one is also ongoing. Another thing is the approval of allowances, and we have done that. Those are some of the things we are doing to encourage our professionals to continue to stay.”

Speaking on the ministry’s projections, Ajetunmobi said the government would work towards renovating secondary health facilities through a 55 Million Euros grant, which the state government has been processing from the French Government; expanding the referral systems across primary, secondary, and tertiary care; boosting digital health infrastructure and electronic health records; increasing access and equity in healthcare service delivery; scaling workforce recruitment and training initiatives, among others.