The Ogun Government on Wednesday said that it was making efforts to reposition the state’s health sector to meet international standard without leaving any stone unturned.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr Tomi Coker, said this during the opening of a five-day workshop with the theme: “Annual Operational Plan (AOP) of the Health Sector for the Year 2021”.
The workshop, which is holistic in nature, was organised by the Federal Ministry of Health in conjunction with some other development partners.
It is expected to provide a road map with timelines to take the sector to an enviable destination.
Coker said that the gathering was the first of its kind since the State Strategic Health Development Plan (SSHDP II) was initiated for 2018-2022 by the Federal Ministry of Health to improve the health status of residents of Ogun.
She said that embracing the plan would afford the state the opportunity to scale up effective service coverage, coordinating support for health, and increasing domestic health financing.
She added that the state had recently constituted and inaugurated its Monitoring and Technical Working Group (TWG) to provide successful implementation of the SSHDP II.
“The Gov. Dapo Abiodun-led government, indeed, has the political will to reposition the sector by coming up with this type of workshop to leverage the benefits of the SSHDP II.
“With this annual operational plan for the coming year, we are sure that we will be better for it.
“We need to design a way forward to achieve the goals set for 2018 to date so that by 2022, we will have done a lot on the plan,” she said.
Coker said that no fewer than 50 areas of interventions in the plan would be pursued vigorously without leaving any stone unturned.
According to her, the areas of intervention include: maternal and child health, Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer, tuberculosis, as well as family planning uptake, immunisation and infrastructure.
The commissioner stressed the need for the heads of various agencies and departments in the health sector to be up and doing in the pursuit of the plan.
She said that everyone was important in the scheme of things.
In his remarks, Dr Angus Ikpe, the Head, Planning, Research and Statistics (PRS) in the Federal Ministry of Health, commended the commissioner for ensuring that the AOP workshop became a reality.
He said that the plan would support the sector’s efforts in the coming year.