Lagos Assembly to initiate bill on health trust fund

The Lagos State House of Assembly has disclosed that plans are underway to initiate the Health Trust Fund Bill, which if passed into law, will assist in the funding of the state health sector.

This disclosure was made on Tuesday by the Chairman, House Committee on Health Services, Hon. Segun Olulade, when he led other members of the committee on an inspection tour to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH).

Olulade who was confronted with several complaints by some of the patients and their relatives, especially as it relates to medical fees, assured the people that his committee is already working on the Health Trust Fund Bill, which according to him may come to place before the end of the year.

The lawmaker explained that the bill if initiated, passed into law by the House and signed by the state Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, will allow well meaning individuals, philanthropists, corporate organisations and so on, to willingly donate money to the fund as it being done with the state Security Trust Fund (LSSTF).

While responding to the issue of shortage of manpower/personnel, Olulade, who is representing Epe Constituency II, promised that the government will look into the issue, promising that more doctors and nurses will be employed across the state’s General Hospitals and Primary Health Centres, so as to reduce the number of patients that visit the LASUTH.

Earlier, some of the patients and their relatives who were on ground when the committee got to the hospital, had commended the staff and health officials of the hospital, but complained that the hospital don’t have enough doctors and nurses to attend to their large number.

One of the patients, a female who doesn’t want her name in print, complained that drugs are sold to them at very expensive rate, and most times, patients are made to go to pharmacies outside the hospitals to get drugs.
Olulade, who noted that the hospital drugs should be sold at cheaper rates, mandated the hospital management, especially, those in charge of the pharmacies within the hospital to make drugs available for the people and at cheaper rates.

Some of them also appealed to the committee to assist them in the area of medical bills, which they claimed were always too much for them to bear.

The committee, after going round all the sections in the hospital, later commended the management of the hospital with the way it is running the hospital.