Lagos State Government says soon, access to general hospitals may be restricted to referrals to encourage the use of primary health care centres in the state.
Governor Babatunde Fashola said this on Thursday during the inauguration of Eredo Primary Healthcare Centre in Epe Constituency II, as part of its 24-hour comprehensive flagship initiative.
He cited the example of United Kingdom, saying no specialist doctor wouldattend to any patient without a referral from a general practitioner.
The governor said, “Very soon, no doctor will attend to you in the generalhospitals except you have a referral note from a primary health care centre. What you seek in the UK is now here with you, you do not need to travel long distance anymore.”
He urged residents of the state to use PHCs for cases including ante-natal, child delivery, malaria fever, and typhoid fever. He added that the PHC would refer delicate cases to the general hospitals.
He said, “What we seek to achieve is to build a referral healthcare system that moves from a robust and intensive grassroots health care, starting from a 24-hour service delivery at the various local governments, through to the generalhospitals, and up to the teaching hospitals.
“This is the only way we can fully integrate, redistribute and optimise our assets. This model has succeeded in every part of the world, we want to replicate it here to make health care a local success.”
He said the Eredo Primary Healthcare Centre is the fifth in the series of 24-hour Comprehensive PHC Flagship Centre targeted at each of the 57 localgovernments and local council development areas.
He said Iga-Iduguran, Mosan-Okunola, Ajara and Ejire Flagship PHCs were currently providing quality health care to residents in the areas.
Special Adviser to the Governor on Health, Dr. Yewande Adeshina, said the completion of the Eredo PHC had raised the capacity of the centre to cater for more residents and avoid long distance journey, especially for pregnant women and nursing mothers.
While applauding the Chairman of Eredo Local Council Development Area, Adeshina charged other LGs to take advantage of the collaborative effort of the state government to provide quality health care facilities in their councils.
She urged residents to access the facility regularly as well as report cases of irregularities at the centre to her office.
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