Dr. Joseph S. Otumara is the longest serving commissioner in the Delta State government. He has been at the commissioner of health for over nine years, before which he served as chairman of Warri South Local Government for three terms. He spoke extensively on multifarious issues of his ministry in this interview with Associate Editor Taiwo Ogundipe.
We want you to give an overview of the Delta State health programmes.
The government of Governor Eweta Uduaghan came into office five years plus ago, precisely May 29, 2007. One of the first things he set himself to do, perhaps as a medical doctor, was to declare a free maternal health programme in Delta State. And that was done precisely on the 27th of November, 2007. In a couple of months we will be celebrating our five years in that programme. Also about two years ago we also instituted the free under-five health programme. The programmes are focused on reducing maternal and under- five mortalities. Both mortalities are economic indicators of knowing how well a nation or state is doing. And as part of the global community, Delta State also buys into global world’ thinking of the reduction of maternal mortality by 3/4 and under-five mortality by 2/3 by the year 2015. We are also talking about the reduction of the incidence of malaria and prevalence of HIV.
Basically, it is one thing to make a hospital available. The problem of sicknesses and death in Nigeria and in other parts of Africa is two-fold. There is the issue of geographical access as well as that of financial access for the people. It is either a government is unable to build sufficient hospitals for the patients to go to when they are ill or the hospitals are available but the people cannot afford to pay for the services. But here in Delta State the situation is different, with what the government has been doing. Uduaghan’s has built a lot of health centres. He has ensured that in every local government headquarter there is at least a general or a government hospital. Today, we have over 460 primary health care centres, over 60 government hospitals general or central hospitals and the tertiary hospital which is the teaching hospital in Oghara. So, within a radius of five kilometres, as directed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), there is a health centre or government general hospital.
Having satisfied the condition of geographical access to hospitals, what the governor then did by instituting the free maternal and under-five health programmes is to ensure that hindrance to financial access is removed. So far, we have recorded over 230,000 patients benefiting from these programmes. From the time a woman is pregnant to six weeks after delivery, all medical attentions, treatments and laboratory investigations, if she comes to our government hospital, are free of charge. Government is responsible for the payment of all these fees. When a patient registers, she is given a card free of charge; she goes to see the nurses that take all the vital signs, which is also free of charge; she also sees a doctor who attends to her free of charge; if the doctor recommends a laboratory investigation such as blood test, ultra-sound scan; she also does it for free. And at delivery, whether caesarian section or normal delivery, it is also free.
Some people believe there is bias for the health probably because the governor has a background in medicine as a medical doctor. What do you have to say about this?
Well, not exactly. I’m sure there are a lot of things that you will see that the government is doing if you going round the state. You’ll see most of the primary and secondary schools renovated. They are in good working conditions and the infrastructures are excellent. Teachers have been employed. I wouldn’t know if I should say he is biased toward education too. And then, a lot of roadwork is going on intra-city and intercity. But I must say that as a medical doctor, he understands medicine very well. He has empathy for patients. He understands the issue of maternal and under-five mortalities. And being a doctor, he has done well in trying to bring issues to the x-co and trying to convince the cabinet members. If he weren’t a doctor, perhaps some of the urgency and attention which he gives to my memo wouldn’t have been there. Health care delivery in Delta State has truly gotten to a level that everybody is happy about.
Every month, the government hospitals treat up to 50,000 patients in the under-five mortality programme. If you multiply 50,000 by 12, that is about 600,000 every year. In the past two years plus, you can imagine the number that we have recorded. That is 25 percent of the population of the state. Delta State population is about 4.2 million as at the last census figure. In which case, we are dealing with about one million of the population medically and surgically.
Apart from the programmes of maternal and under-five mortality, we also have a programme we call the rural health scheme. In the scheme, we assemble doctors of different specialties, but basically ophthalmologists, eye surgeons, obstetrics and gynaecologists, general surgeons and general practitioners. We realise that in spite of the programmes the government has put in place, there are some people who would rather stay behind particularly in the rural areas and not avail themselves of these opportunities. If you go to the villages and other rural communities, you will see that diseases have marked and disabled some people completely. And so we go round thecommunities once in a year starting from the dry season in October till about January the following year. We take about 100 to 120 communities as we go round. Every local government is touched. Even if your community is not involved and you have a surgical condition, you can move into another community to enjoy the benefit.
We are going to start this year’s programme in about a month or two months time. And we are even more equipped. We have a moving theatre and ward in which we are going to be admitting patients and carrying out operations.
It is noticed that the drugs that are being dispensed in the hospitals and health centres are branded with the governor’s photographs, what informed this?
Yes, we did that recently because we noticed that a lot of pilfering was happening to some of our drugs. We also did it to show that this is the man that is making everything happen. We also inscribed on the drugs that they are not for sale. They are free for the health programmes. So, anybody who sees any of the drugs in a chemist shop would know that it had been stolen. The drugs are specially made for the programmes. We have one of the best drug-revolving fund systems in the country. What we do in our health n a monthly basis to the pharmaceutical companies that supply the department that handles pharmacy affairs. The head of the department is a lady doctorate degree holder. We always have enough drugs although we cannot rule out the possibility of some being out of stock some times. We always query the pharmacists at the peripheral hospitals far away from the central drug store if they don’t make requisition on time. Requisitions are supposed to be made one week ahead when it is realized that the drug stock is depleting. programmes is that all the costs we incur on of drugs and reagents for laboratory investigations are calculated and paid for on a monthly basis to the pharmaceutical companies that supply the department that handles pharmacy affairs. The head of the department is a lady doctorate degree holder. We always have enough drugs although we cannot rule out the possibility of some being out of stock some times. We always query the pharmacists at the peripheral hospitals far away from the central drug store if they don’t make requisition on time. Requisitions are supposed to be made one week ahead when it is realized that the drug stock is depleting.
We also have an appeal fund scheme for some health conditions that require medical condition outside the country. We have been doing that for five years. We started with N250 million, raised it to N300 million and in this year’s budget, it is N400 million. They are for the rare conditions that we cannot attend to in Nigeria. They include kidney transplant as is done today in India, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. These cost as much as N3 million to N4 million. People make appeal for this fund and the governor graciously, after giving his approval, releases this money. Other cases that had been handled included hole-in-the heart condition suffered by children, diabetic gangrenous ulcer, among others.
What would you describe as the essence of Governor Uduaghan’s government?
Governor Uduaghan’s vision is to have Delta State as one united entity. Before now there always ethnic clashes among the Itshekiris, the Urhobos , the Ijaws, etc. Today, we have a harmonious state courtesy of Governor Uduaghan. His vision is to have a united Delta State that flourishes with healthy, educated and economically empowered people. He has achieved this to a great extent since he has been in the saddle. He is also enhancing the geographical contiguity of the state by constructing roads and building bridges that will bring the people closer to one another. This bridge-building has been physical, political and social. He is also building schools and offering free education.
