Obaseki, doctors disagree on corruption in Edo healthcare system

Rejigs entertainment, tourism with the hub, park, wife seeks support for girl child

Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has decried the level of corruption in the state’s healthcare system, noting that his administration will insist on a new order to ensure that doctors serve Edo people to justify their pay.

He stated this at a meeting with doctors from the Edo State Hospital Management Board, Specialist Hospital, Primary Healthcare Agency and Ministry of Health in Benin City.

Obaseki said his administration would resist the old order and chart a new course aimed at improving the state’s healthcare system, lamenting that the level of corruption in the healthcare system was worrisome.

But a statement issued by President and Secretary-General of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), Dr. Osayande Edorisiagbon and Dr. Ovbiagele Uaboi, after an emergency meeting, described Obaseki’s comments as vexatious and unsubstantiated.

They said ARD was unaware of a panel set up by government where any doctor was indicted for financial impropriety, adding that the group would challenge the government to make its findings public if such committee was ever set up.

“It is a notorious fact that several years ago, the Edo state government introduced a direct collection of revenue for services rendered in all government health facilities that make it impossible for management of health institutions to have access to revenue collected, let alone the doctors who render only clinical services.”

The doctors, therefore, insisted that any lapses in the government’s revenue-collection process in the state’s healthcare system should not be blamed on medical personnel.

OBASEKI said his administration is developing entertainment to attract filmmakers and music producers from across the world.

Obaseki said the facility under construction would accommodate world-class equipment that would enhance the production of movies, music and other activities in the entertainment industry.

The governor, who was on an inspection tour of the facility, said his administration had sourced funds from the German Government to finance the project.

MEANWHILE, Obaseki’s wife, Betsy, charged stakeholders to support the girl child development in the government’s quest to end Gender-Based Violence, discrimination and subjugation of women and girls in the country.

In a statement to mark the International Day for Women and Girls in Science in Benin City, Obaseki stressed the need to end Gender-Based Violence, discrimination and subjugation of women and girls.