Lagos Assembly to float Health Trust Fund bill

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.

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

Olulade, who was inundated with several complaints by patients and their relatives, especially as it relates to medical fees, assured the people that his committee was already working on the Health Trust Fund Bill, which might come through before the end of the year.

The lawmaker explained that the bill, if passed by the House and signed into law by the state governor, it would allow well meaning individuals, philanthropists, corporate organisations and so on, to willingly donate funds to healthcare as it is being done with the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF).

While responding to the issue of shortage of healthcare workers, Olulade, promised that the government would look into the issue, promising that more doctors and nurses would 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 didn’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 at very expensive rate, and most times patients are made to go to pharmacies outside the hospitals to get drugs.

Olulade, however, noted that the hospital drugs should be sold at cheaper rates. He 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.