Delta State House of Assembly Committee on Health is proposing an emergency summit with the State Ministry of Health and its allied health agencies in the state.
The summit which is billed to hold anytime soon, according to the Chairman of the Committee, Hon Austin Uroye is to address some of the perceived administrative, managerial, accounting and official abnormally currently rocking the health sector in the state.
The resolution for the emergency summit was reached when the Commissioner in charge of the Ministry, Dr Mordi Ononye, again, appeared before the Assembly Committee on Health alongside other agencies of the Ministry to defend their 2022 budget.
At the budget defence session, counter-accusations prevailed as some of the allied agencies of the Ministry, particularly the Hospitals Management Board, HMB which used the opportunity of its appearance to respond to accusations levied against it by officials of the Delta State Contributory Health Insurance Scheme, who had earlier appeared before the Committee.
Although the HIS officials were not present at Wednesday’s presentation, the verbal punch by the Chairman, HMB, Dr Austin Obidi was a response to the accusation of some irregularities on the part of the board in the implementation of the insurance scheme in the state.
The Chairman of the Committee, Hon Austin Uroye observed that there was a deluge of revelations bothering largely on professional misconducts in the health sector and proposed an emergency summit to address the issues.
Hon Uruoye, while expressing displeasure over the level of the official misdemeanour currently rocking the system, advanced the need for staff in the State Health institutions to adopt a public sector approach in their day-to-day activities.
The Lawmaker emphasized that the dignity of the government-owned hospitals in Delta State must be restored, even as he charged the ministry to beef up its game in regards to health delivery.
Apparently looking disturbed by the level of alleged abnormalities currently rocking some of the allied Agencies of the Ministry, the Health Commissioner, Dr Mordi Ononye reaffirmed the need for attitudinal change among management and staff of the parastatals.
Commissioner disclosed that he is already seeking the assistance of the Lawmakers and other critical stakeholders in enforcing the needed attitudinal change among the workforce, saying that the primary health sector is poorly supervised.
Dr Ononye stated that there should be proper coordination of Doctors and Nurses in government hospitals, stressing that until the needful was done the current situation in the sector as revealed during the budget defence session will continue to hamper the overall productivity and service delivery in the state government-owned hospitals.
The Commissioner also drew the attention of the Committee to other challenges faced in the sector and solicited for better synergy aimed at addressing the challenges.
Officials of the Delta State Primary Health Development Agency and the Delta State Teaching Hospital, Oghara also appeared before the Health Committee to defend their proposed budget for the 2022 financial year.
