COVID-19: Health workers are heroes, well taken care of in Ogun – PTF

…Pledges reimbursement of state expenses on outbreak

Contrary to the claim by the doctors under the aegis of the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) of Ogun state-owned Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital in Sagamu, that government does not pay the wages that are commensurate with their services, the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19, has described the frontline health workers in the state as heroes and heroines well taken care of by government.

Resident Doctors at the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital, which houses one of the Isolation Centres in the state, threatened to go on warning strike amid COVID-19 if the government did not pay commensurate wages. This prompted Governor Dapo Abiodun to say, under emotions, that the agitation was irresponsible and might be politically motivated.

But when the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 Team being led by Executive Director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Faisal Shuaib, visited Governor Dapo Abiodun in Abeokuta on Wednesday, the team declared that the state had fought a good fight against the spread of COVID-19 by taking a quick response to the outbreak and taking good care of health workers as part of measures to fight back.

While lauding the efforts of the Ogun state government towards curtailing Coronavirus pandemic as being exemplary and directed all others states of the federation to learn from Ogun state about the measures that were adopted in the state to cope and flatten the curve of COVID-19, PTF Team noted that the state would be reimbursed on all its expenses on the outbreak.

“The Presidential Taskforce is visiting Ogun state not because there is a crisis in the management of COVID-19, not because we see any evidence of gaps in the outbreak response, but instead to commend the effort of Ogun sate for the way they have managed the outbreak response. Ogun state is a good example of doing the right things when it comes to the COVID-19.

“We are happy with the response of Ogun state to the outbreak and the FG will be supporting Ogun state with funding because Ogun state took on the burden of the outbreak from when it started in February. We noticed some of the steps that Ogun state took and the cost of those steps.

“We have seen a very good coordination of your response to Covid-19. We are glad that Ogun state has created different contexts on the management of the outbreak. It is commendable that you have domesticated your strategies in line with the peculiarities of various communities and you have ensured that your frontline health workers are taken care of.

“Within the shortest possible time, funds that are supposed to come to Ogun state from the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, are made available to Ogun state to help you achieve your dreams of achieving primary health care to your people”.

Responding, Governor Dapo Abiodun reiterated that the present administration has effective healthcare delivery on its front burner, just as he disclosed that Ogun was the first in the country to commit to life insurance for its health workers across board.

The governor said that his administration was able to come up with well-structured Isolation Centres with about 400- bed spaces spread across the state, adding that his administration is also planning to make some of its recently renovated Primary Healthcare Centers first responders to manage cases related to the pandemic.

Governor Abiodun, who noted that all what the state had been able to achieve in terms of having a well-structured Isolation and Treatment Centres was done through self-help, just as he added that his administration had also been able to provide insurance policy to all of its health workers.