The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has said the government has hired 270 new healthcare professionals who will join the Edo State Primary Healthcare Development Agency to improve the quality of healthcare services to Edo people.
Obaseki, who spoke to the new medical staff at the John Odigie-Oyegun Public Service Academy, in Benin City, assured the government’s dedication to investing in the education and health sectors for the benefit of the Edo people.
The governor said, “I am happy we are here today. It has been hard to recruit so I asked the management of the new agency to invite applications, give confidence to young people, and motivate them to apply as they don’t need to know anyone but just know something to get employed in the civil/public service in the State. I am happy that you had the courage to apply.
“When we assumed office in 2016, it was obvious Edo needed reforms because of what we saw. We knew it could not take us forward because Edo is a very special State. When we assumed office in 2016, it was obvious that there is something we needed to do that will make the State great.
“One of them is education and the other is health. As an administration, all we do is care about our people, as we have a very young population. Almost 70 percent of our population is below the age of 35 years and serving our people is our top priority.”
“We realized this, and we focused on basic education by reforming the education sector and also focused on primary healthcare to transform the health system in Edo. People talk about primary health care and for governments before, primary health care means just building something somewhere but to my administration, it’s not about infrastructure and contracts but about the people.
“How do you inspire and attract a new generation of people into the healthcare system? First, we had to redesign the institution to support our primary healthcare services. That was why we established the Edo State Primary Healthcare Development Agency.
“Just like in education and Edo SUBEB, we looked for ways to cooperate with the local governments to remove some burden of salaries of healthcare workers at the local government level to the State. We set up this Agency’s funding between state and local government administrations and created a new rank and new scheme of services for primary healthcare workers where they will not face delays in salaries.
Obaseki added, “From day one, we have put in place a pension scheme and life insurance plan to enable you to have meaningful careers in the healthcare sector. I have the pleasure of welcoming the new hires into the Edo State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, as you are the new team that will change our healthcare in Edo State.”
