Oyo to launch N50b health endowment fund

The Oyo State government has promised to launch a N50 billion health endowment fund to transform the healthcare sector.The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Azeez Adeduntan, announced this after the state’s Executive Council meeting that was chaired by Governor Abiola Ajimobi.

He said Ajimobi approved the endowment fund to transform the health sector, because government had realised that it could not fund it without the support of the private sector and corporate bodies.

The state government also disclosed that it had taken delivery of a $2 million worth of medical equipment, which would be located at the cardiovascular center of the state hospital in Ade-Oyo, Ibadan.

The Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Toye Arulogun and Special Adviser to the Governor on Communication and Strategy, Yomi Layinka also attended the meeting.

Adeduntan said the endowment was necessary to stem the untimely deaths caused by inadequate medical facilities in the state hospitals, adding that the fund would overhaul the sector.

“We must do all within our capacity to provide the needed facilities to curb untimely deaths occasioned by the unavailability of the needed drugs and hospital equipment. The fund will take care of these problems that were caused by poor funding and the lack of financial capacity by the government,” said.

The commissioner explained that government had just taken delivery of some equipment to combat cardiovascular diseases, which had resulted in many untimely deaths because the victims could not afford to travel abroad for medical attention.“These efforts are geared towards making healthcare affordable by the people, as promised by Ajimobi during his electioneering,” he said.