Date: 2021-05-26

We woke up early this morning to read comments emanating from the above subject matter.

The Kwara State Ministry of Health is at the planning stage for her next round of community health outreach, which has been a feature of the Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq-led administration. This will be the seventh in the series of the highly-impactful intervention, aimed at providing services to indigent members of our community who needed specialist services but cannot afford the cost of care. The medical outreach committee, in response to several entreaties and requests for involvement from multiple stakeholders in the health sector as experienced during previous outreaches, sought to collaborate widely in the spirit of universal health coverage.

It was in this light that the pharmacy unit of the Ministry of Health wished to integrate their parent body, Pharmaceuticals Society of Nigeria, into the community outreach scheme to ensure their mutual involvement and support to the community.

Collaboration, Partnership and Community Participation are key component of community interventions which are acceptable globally and inherent component of the Sustainable Development Goals, SDG-17, of the United Nations.

It must be stated that the administration of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has constantly released funds for all phases of the health interventions. For instance, the Governor has graciously approved the sums of N13m for the current outreach which is targeted at giving free healthcare/surgeries to poor and vulnerable members of the society. In other words, the administration has fully provided for the outreach, including the required drugs.

Even so, we felt it is an opportunity to further open our doors to organisations that have shown willingness to partner with us like the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Nigerian Medical Association, Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria, Association of Medical laboratory scientists of Nigeria and many others that represent the full complements of our health workforce to come on board to offer what each of them has in stock. That way, as many indigents as may require such free services can benefit.

Medical and surgical outreaches are organised as periodic interventional activities to deliver specific services to target population. Kwara State does that. In addition, this administration has put in place various social safety nets towards addressing challenges of the people, including the State-owned Insurance Agency that runs a wide range of people-oriented scheme that caters for people in the formal and informal sectors, and the indigents. Counterpart funds are being paid to sustain the state's benefit package in the Basic Health Care Provision Fund through the Primary Health Care and Health insurance gateways.

It is therefore needless for anybody or groups of persons to make attempts at misrepresenting our well intended motive at addressing identified health challenges to desiring members of the public whose lives are being touched by the various health interventions of government in collaboration with reputable organisations and partners in health care service delivery.

Signed

Dr. Raji Razaq

Honourable Commissioner

Ministry of Health

Kwara State