Change.org
In July 2022, a breast cancer patient in Ondo town lost her life in the operating room because there was no electricity. She had been in the hospital for a month and her last hope was the surgical operation disrupted by a power outage.
There are tens of unreported and avoidable losses in Ondo Government hospitals, due to a lack of medical equipment, shortage of personnel, and infrastructure deficit, especially in rural areas.
Yet, the government of Ondo State has refused to implement the 2001 ’Abuja Declaration’ that enjoined governments, at all levels in Africa, to commit 15% of their annual budgets to the health sector. Sign this petition to call on the Ondo State government to do what is right!
Around July 2022, a breast cancer patient in Ondo town lost her life in the operating room because there was no electricity. She had been in the hospital for a month and her last hope was the surgical operation. The operation was disrupted by power outage as the hospital switched between electricity and generator. The broken and devastated husband said he once had to personally put on the hospital’s generator when the official in charge was nowhere to be found and the wife was already under the blade. This happened at the Ondo Trauma and Surgical Center.
Later in the year, a family in Okitipupa, Ondo State, lost their one-year-and-seven months old baby at the General Hospital in the town. They had rushed to the hospital, seeking urgent medical help for their baby. He needed blood transfusion and there was no medical doctor to attend to them. Sadly, the baby died on their way to a private clinic, many kilometers away.
There are tens of unreported and avoidable losses in Ondo Government hospitals, due to lack of medical equipment, shortage of personnel, infrastructure deficit, especially in rural areas, endless strike actions and downing of tools etc causing everlasting pains to families and their surviving ones.
Yet, the government of Ondo has refused to implement the 2001 ’Abuja Declaration’ that enjoined governments, at all levels in Africa, commit 15% of their annual budgets to the health sector. The highest Ondo State Government had earmarked to the health sector was almost #18bn of the 2021 #174.8bn annual budget. A little over 10%.
The government, in its Medium Term Sector Strategy(MTSS) on Health for 2022-2024, published on the economic planning website, agreed that both primary and secondary health care levels in Ondo State have challenges in retaining human resources, struggle with low or inadequate funds and grappling with poor and unavailable medical facilities.
Please, join me to demand that the Ondo State Government, through the Ministry of Health, increase the annual health budget to 15%.
This investment will help in actualizing the Universal Health Coverage, builds human capital, reduces poverty and inequity, safeguards health security from pandemics, improves workforce productivity and provides employment
If this is not done as soon as possible, we’ll continue to lose more lives in Ondo government hospitals, more families will be thrown into everlasting sorrows and the trust in government will continue to erode.
