The Director General (DG), of the Delta State Contributory Health Commission (DSCHC), Olorogun Dr. Isaac Akpoveta, has briefed the chairman and members of the Delta State House of Assembly (DTHA), House Committee on Health on the activities, of the agency.
The Committee led by the chairman, Hon. Ferguson Onwo and his members who were on an oversight function on Monday May 8, 2024, were briefed at the commission’s headquarters in Asaba.
The Director-General, noted that the Governing Board of the Contributory Health Commission, is very different from those in other of such commissions in the country.
“It was well thought out, the membership is not political, it is stakeholder based”, stressing that members were drawn from the ministry of health, economic planning, labour, TUC, Head of Service, CSOs and NECA amongst others.
“It is a special board and it has helped us a lot. We don’t discuss politics here. We talk about how health insurance work”.
Also speaking, the chairman of the commission, Dr Austin Obidi, said: “we are looking at increasing our enrollee population because hitherto, our enrollees, we have mainly formal and the equity plan.
“For the informal, they are people we need to reach out to as a matter of cost, we are looking at garnering close to a million persons.
“But getting a million persons isn’t the problem but when you bring them, where are going to house them? Treat them? What about the enrollee satisfaction? They are clients, the client are the customers, the customer is always right.
He noted that it is a yearly renewable activity, noting that if the clients are not satisfied, they won’t come back again, “if they are satisfied, it gives us a lot of political milage.
Akpoveta and Obidi explained that so far the Commission has enrolled three hundred and thirty two thousand residents, even as he called on corporate organizations and well-to-do individuals to help enroll poor and indigent families.
They noted that the Commission has added private health facilities into the scheme as using only public health institutions can not meet up with demands of numerous enrollees into the system.
The Chairman and Director General of the Commission, thanked the House Assembly Committee on Health for the familiarization visit and the oversight function.
Chairman, Delta State House of Assembly Committee on Health, Hon. Ferguson Onwo, emphasized the need for prompt and efficient healthcare delivery system in the state.
The lawmaker who represents Isoko South 2 Constituency in the House, emphasized the importance of adequate and quick response to the needs of patients that seek medical attentions across health facilities in the state.
He said members of the Committee were very concerned about the issue and would continue to collaborate with stakeholders to restore sanity where it is lacking in the state’s health institutions.
Onwo noted that the Oborevwori government’s goal of accessible and affordable health care in the state can only be said to have been achieved, when Health Workers played their roles effectively and in accordance with tenets of the profession.
Dwelling on principles behind the visit, Hon. Onwo listed law making, representation and oversight as the three basic functions of the legislature.
He explained that provisions of the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria, gave Assembly Committees power to oversight Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), stressing that his led Committee on Health could not be found wanting in that regard, hence visits to MDAs under his watch.
Onwo assured the Delta State Contributory Health Commission of the readiness of the
Committee to synergize with it in ensuring that challenges faced were addressed to enhance health care delivery services at the grassroots.
The lawmaker lauded management for all the strategies adopted to ensuring that more Deltans were enrolled into the scheme, even as he asked for quality assurance as the enrollees increases.
On the entourage with Hon. Onwo were Vice Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Emeka Asamuta and members, including Hon. Perkins Umukoro, Festus Utuama and Matthew Omonade.
