By Segun Ajayi

Some Nigerians have the predilection to talk down on government’s services more especially, those offered by administrations they don’t fancy. These individuals are harbingers of falsehoods, biased presentations and they ply their trades on radio and TV stations. Meanwhile, some of the stations appear complicit because they shirk in their responsibilities to guage opinions via their feedback mechanisms.

The same phenomenon pervades the digital space where oftentimes, biased opinions are  unverified and spurious claims go unchecked. For instance, I picked the comment of a respondent on Lagos radio station on a particular morning in which he claimed the health sector in Lagos was comatose and had nothing offer. No perspective could have been more jaundiced, not in a state where public health is functional, qualitative and closer to the people.

This writer is a card-holder to a primary health facility in Ayobo-Ipaja Local Council Development Area (LCDA) in Alimosho area of Lagos. The centre is sufficient enough to meet the basic health concerns of the locals, and that can be verified. There are doctors on ground, a medical laboratory, a pharmacy where drugs are purchased at subsidised rates, and another laboratory to measure the patient’s pulse. I patronised the centre when I observed my Blood Pressure (BP) kept defying medication.

I had visited the council’s secretariat on few occasions even though I didn’t consider using the health facility. All that changed after I attended the free hypertension and diabetes screening last November. The initiative, inspired by Nigeria Governors’ Forum, and delivered through the Commissioners for Health Forum, altered my perception of public medical facilities as places reserved for indigent Lagosians. 

At a point, I craved a second opinion on my BP which was defying medications. So, I headed to the facility only to discover the registration protocol was seamless and the charges friendly. My first day in the centre disabused my perception about public health facilities as overcrowded and disorderly. There was a doctor on ground who attended to me at no cost after a nurse had taken my bio-data. He recommended a test, which I did at the lab, and the result was ready in half an hour. I returned to the doctor with the results and he wrote the drugs which I bought at controlled rates at the pharmacy. On my subsequent visits, the doctor monitored the effectiveness of the new drugs and following marked improvement in my BP reading, the doctor advised I continued with the medication and do routine checks on my BP. Essentially, these encounters were to encourage several Lagosians who are still stuck in their pessimism to vanish such thoughts.

A Lagos resident, Mrs. Emmamouzo Kayode will always be grateful to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu for enabling quality, yet affordable health services to residents of Meiran, Ile Epo, Abule Egba and environ. Although she is resident in Baruwa axis of Ayobo-Ipaja area of Alimosho LCDA, commuting to Meiran Primary Health Facility and Orile-Agege General Hospital, Ile-Epo, Agege was never a barrier between her and accessing quality health service. She is an ulcer patient, and since she started patronising the Primary Health Centre at Meiran in 2021, Emmamouzo had witnessed to the evolution  of the facility from a modest structure to a tasteful medical centre. Apart from its insfrastructural upgrade, the decent environment would definitely enhance performance. For instance, she recalled the centre’s improved administrative efficiency via digitalisation of patients’ records and other time-saving procedures. ‘You only present your card number which is punched into the computer, your medical records pop up. From the waiting room, the information is forwarded to the doctor you’re seeing’.

Kayode was also on appointment at Ile Epo General Hospital within the same axis and her story was not short of impressive. She admitted she met a huge crowd on the day, but the organisation and conducive environment would make even the wholesome crave for ailment. ‘As we reclined comfortably in the air conditioned room awaiting our turns, we were served tea and biscuits’, an enthused Kayode told to this writer. 

A pastor and estate consultant, Blessing Chukwuma had never been a fan of the ruling party. But his visit to the same  Ile Epo Health Centre reinforced the need to be open-minded and be objective when confronted with undeniable truths. His church member had had her son admitted and operated upon successfully at the facility and what he saw upon his visit to the patient and mom left nice impressions. The next Sunday, Chukwuma stood before the congregation to bear witness to the good health services the state is offering to her citizens. He went further to encourage those stuck with primordial sentiments that governments had nothing to offer to begin to have a rethink. ‘Sometimes we have to say these things. Where the state government is doing well, we’ld say it. I never thought a government health facility could be that top notch’, the cleric said. He therefore, counselled the brethren to try out some government programmes instead of wallowing in ignorance and persimism.

At Rauf Aregbesola Health Centre at Okunola, Egbeda in  Mosan-Okunola LCDA, the story was not different. Neat environment, seamless protocol,  friendly doctors and nurses. Also an out-patient facility, a visitor is assured of basic medical benefits like consultation, diagnosis and drug prescription at the medical centre. All the developments bear testimony to the robust health policy of the Sanwo-Olu-led administration as etched in the famed THEMES+ agenda.

Interestingly a pillar of the state’s development agenda developments in the health sector has followed a road map; a master plan that guarantees unrestricted access to healthcare delivery. Also entrenched in the road map is comprehensive infrastructure renewal of the state-owned health facilities and which is being executed in phases across the state’s primary, secondary and tertiary health services.