Ondo Govt holds validation workshop on Strategic Health Development Plan

The Ondo State Government has inaugurated a four-day validation workshop on 2017-2021 Strategic Health Development Plan II.
Inaugurating the workshop on Tuesday in Akure, Dr Wahab Adegbenro, the state Commissioner for Health, said the training was meant to produce an all-encompassing and harmonised strategic health development document for the health sector of the state.
“The purpose of this final validation workshop is to produce document with its appropriate costing which will serve as the basis for collective ownership, adequate resource allocation, inter-sectoral collaboration, decentralisation, equity, harmonisation, alignment and mutual accountability in Ondo State.
“The document will also stipulate requirements for future health investment towards achieving sustainable universal access and coverage with a defined package of essential services within the planned period,” Adegbenro stated.
He expressed optimism that a final document would be produced at the end of the workshop that would proffer necessary interventions to enhance mutual accountability and transparency in the use of health development resources in an efficient and effective way which would be result-based management approaches.
The commissioner therefore enjoined the participants to avail themselves the opportunity of the workshop to develop a sustainable, cost effective and realistic plan for the state.
Adegbenro lauded the collaboration of development partners such as UNICEF and Saving One Million Lives (SOML) for their unwavering financial and technical support towards the process of the plan.
Dr Taiye Oni, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, said that the state actually put pressure on the Federal Government to start the strategic health plan.
Oni noted that the outcome of the plan would be incorporated into federal government’s plan.
He promised that the outcome of the workshop would be implemented rather than being put on the shelf, as being done to the last one.
The permanent secretary also charged participants to put in their best because it would enable the state government to plan effectively towards providing quality healthcare services to the people.
“I want to enjoin you to put all your best so that we can have robust workshop and at the end of five years, we can be gracious for good health strategic plan for our dear state,” he said.
According to him, the ministry has learnt a lot from the mistakes of the past and will not fall into them again.
Dr Francis Akanbiemu, the Executive Secretary, Ondo State Primary Health Development Care Board, said the strategic health plan was long overdue for the state.
Akanbiemu noted that the plan was necessary because it would help the state to chart a good way forward in the health sector.
Similarly, Dr Dipo Durojaye, the Director of Planning and Research in the ministry, also said that it was another process of the strategic plan which would dictate the exact things to do in the health sector in the next five years in the state.