Adewole Calls for Paradigm Shift in Management of Health Sector

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City

The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, recently, called for a paradigm shift in the management of the nation’s health sector, through injection of preventive care (Primary healthcare) than curative care (secondary and tertiary).

‎Speaking on the topic: “Revamping the Primary Healthcare in Edo” to mark the second anniversary of Governor Godwin Obaseki’s administration, Adewole stated that most of the country’s heath problems are in the preventive sub-sector, whereas the nation spends more in the curative sub-sector.

According to the minister, many countries in the world that have recorded economic breakthroughs are those that invested in health.

Lamenting the collapse of many of the country’s Primary Health Centres, which he said cater for the health needs of 80 per cent of the nation’s population, the minister said any country that wants to have good health coverage must go‎ through the route of Primary Health Care.

He, therefore, announced that the Federal Government would this year, launch the country’s Strategic Health Development Plan, adding that the government is to provide a functional healthcare for each ward in the country.
The minister, while commending Obaseki for the effort the state was making in its Primary Healthcare coverage, however urged the government to make its first class hospital work.

He warned the government against im‎porting expatriates to come and run the hospital, urging the governor to learn from Akwa Ibom state experience; even as he said personnel to run the hospital abound in the country.

Earlier, Obaseki had disclosed that his administration was seeking private partnership to put the state’s five star hospital to use, adding that his government has rolled out 20 prototype functional healthcare centres to be replicated in all the 18 local government areas of the state.