Edo's Quiet Health Revolution: How Okpebholo Is Restoring Hope And Saving Lives

Edo's Quiet Health Revolution: How Okpebholo Is Restoring Hope And Saving Lives

Habiba Sam 

 A healthy people make a healthy society. Without good health, no one can be productive, no family can truly thrive, and no nation can develop. It is this simple truth that has made healthcare the heartbeat of the present administration in Edo State.

In less than two years, a quiet but massive revolution has been unfolding in the health sector. Dilapidated facilities are coming back to life, hospitals are being equipped, manpower is being boosted, and financial barriers to treatment are being removed.

For a long time, primary healthcare - the first point of care for the rural poor, the market woman, the farmer - was left in ruins. Today, the narrative is changing. About 61 Primary Healthcare Centres have been renovated and equipped across the 18 local government areas in under one year, while 65 PHCs and 35 Secondary Health Centres have been touched in an ongoing overhaul. 

The quality of work has attracted national attention. Members of the House Committee on Health Services from the National Assembly who inspected some of the facilities recently expressed satisfaction with what they saw.

To decongest the Central Hospital in Benin City, a new clinic has been opened in Oredo, while the Eneghede General Hospital which was moribund for 19 years has been fully renovated. In the Edo Central axis, a standard hospital is being built in Irrua to bring specialist care closer to the people outside the state capital.

The renewal is not just about buildings. The living quarters of doctors, abandoned for years, are being renovated to improve welfare and retention. The Stella Obasanjo Hospital is undergoing major rehabilitation including completion of its mortuary wing, while the Edo Specialist Hospital has been re-equipped with ICU facilities and other modern equipment to guarantee uninterrupted service, even during difficult periods.

Manpower is being addressed head-on. About 1,000 health workers have been recruited to fill critical gaps. Modern ultrasound machines have been deployed to all 18 local government areas, and hundreds of vulnerable persons have been enrolled into the health insurance scheme. A new agency for drug management and health commodities has also been established to sanitize the drug value chain.

Access and affordability, often the biggest hurdles, are being tackled with bold policies.

Malaria testing and treatment is now free in all government-owned hospitals in the state. The policy, approved to run for two years in the first instance, is designed to remove cost as a reason why people delay or avoid treatment for the country's leading killer disease.

The war against fake drugs and quackery is also being intensified. Old drug warehouses built decades ago but left to rot have been renovated, and the state is partnering with foreign investors to begin local drug production in Edo, with plans to supply neighbouring states and the private sector while cutting out middlemen and counterfeiters.

Perhaps the most humane intervention in recent months is the free, comprehensive care for women and girls living with Vesico-Vaginal Fistula (VVF).

In partnership with the Federal Government, the state is offering 100 per cent free corrective surgery for VVF, ensuring cost does not stop women from getting specialised care. Beyond surgery, beneficiaries also receive free feeding and transportation support.

The services are coordinated through the National Obstetric Fistula Centre in Benin City, including its temporary site at the Ugbor Primary Healthcare Centre, following a Memorandum of Understanding between the state and the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare for the establishment of a regional centre in Edo.

The programme covers Edo and the entire South-South zone, and affected women and girls are being encouraged to come forward, with the assurance that VVF is treatable and no woman should suffer in silence, shame or isolation.

This is what a health system that cares looks like - when malaria drugs are free, when a rural mother can walk into a functional PHC near her home, when a doctor has a decent place to live, when drugs are genuine, and when a woman living with fistula can walk into a hospital and walk out with her dignity restored without paying a kobo.

Good health produces a sane society, and a sane society builds a better nation. From primary centres to general hospitals, from free malaria care to free fistula repair, Edo's health sector is no longer a story of decay, but one of restoration, hope and life saved.