Ogun Govt offers free healthcare to 70,000 individuals for one year
The Executive Secretary of the Ogun State Health Insurance Agency (OGSHIA), Dr. Afolabi Dosunmu announced on Saturday in Abeokuta that the Ogun State government would provide free access to healthcare for 70,000 individuals for a duration of one year under its health insurance scheme.
Dosunmu revealed that registered patients, in addition to paying their premiums, would also benefit from the free surgical intervention initiative announced by Governor Dapo Abiodun in January.
He further disclosed that since the beginning of March, over 1,000 surgeries had been successfully performed, surpassing the expected average number of patients seeking screening and treatment at healthcare facilities.
This initiative underscores the government’s commitment to improving healthcare access and affordability for residents of Ogun State.
He noted that some patients who could not get their surgeries done immediately were referred to another level of care to be operated on at a later date for some reasons.
“The governor had instructed us to enroll 70,000 people for free medical care but he insisted that we gather people that need one surgical intervention or the other and that’s how we started that journey.
“Of course, there’s a process; when you get there, they enroll you on insurance; you see a doctor who screens you and look at if that surgery can be done now or later.
“There are some people with high blood pressure, some with high blood sugar and other conditions and of course we can’t do surgeries for those ones but they’ll get it done at a later date because they already have our card,” he said.
Dosunmu, however, lamented that many prospective or referred patients refused to collect their insurance, which is their guarantee for free medical and surgical services.
He urged patients that registered and were screened but given later dates for their surgeries, to visit the facility to collect their cards.
“We now have issues with the insurance card that we enrolled them with; a lot of people are not coming back and we’ve started calling them but they’ve not come back for those cards.
“It is because they don’t understand that it is by having those cards that they can be assured that the surgery will be done for them later.
“The card guarantees that for the next one year, you get free medical and surgical treatment,” he added.
Dosunmu said the state government committed N900 million to the state health insurance and the free surgical intervention.
According to him, the intervention is basically aimed at eliminating out-of-pocket expenses for the vulnerable population and also achieving universal health coverage.
