Mkpoikana Udoma 26 March 2015, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt – The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, SPDC, has tasked experts in the Nigerian health sector to focus more on strategies that will further enhance service delivery to the public.
The charge was given to the management and staff of Obio Cottage Hospital in Rumuobiakani, Port Harcourt at a one day stakeholder engagement and evaluation workshop, organised by SPDC under its community health insurance scheme.
Speaking to newsmen at the event, Shell’s Regional Community Health Manager, Dr. Babatunde Fakunle, noted that for health services to be fully effective in the country, it should not be seen as the responsibility of the government or private medical facility owners alone.
According to him, “The health sector has to be the responsibility of both the government, private and the public sectors in other to deliver quality healthcare to the people.
“The programme has to be owned by all the stakeholders, the government, the private sector and the beneficiaries. That is why we talk about Public-Private People’s Partnership”
Dr. Fakunle reiterated on the need for capacity and human capital development for health workers, which he said was more important than erecting concrete infrastructures.
He said that people believe that medical rendition is not a profit making venture, adding that if well organised it can yield a lot of revenue for the health sector.
“You have to approach this kind of business as a profitable business. We know it’s not the kind of business where you share profits, but it is profitable and there must be transparency and true accountability,” he asserted.
Decrying the issue of corruption in the system and advocating for higher moral values, he stressed the need for zero tolerance for avoid corruption in the health sector.
In the same vein, the Chairman of Shell’s Cluster Development Foundation, Chief Dr. Joseph Amadi, who spoke on the challenges experienced during the conceptualisation of the project five years ago, said the project today has recorded a tremendous success in rendering quality medical service to the people of Obio community and Port Harcourt, as it now serves as a research centre for medical students as well as doctors. It also serves as a mini-centre for some critical health , he stated.
It should be noted that Obio Cottage Hospital in Port Harcourt is one of the 20 health facilities supported, upgraded and fully equipped by the SPDC in the nine states of the Niger Delta, as part of its effort to boost community healthcare in the oil-rich region.
