Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has signed into Law, a Bill establishing the Edo State College of Nursing and Midwifery.
Also, the Governor signed into law the Primary HealthCare Development Agency Bill to regulate the activities of Health care in the state.
While signing the two Bills into Law yesterday, the Governor said: “we have a Bill establishing Edo State College of Nursing and Midwifery and other matters. Although we have a School of Nursing, but there were huge gaps and we checked all the records and with the Ministry of Justice and there was no law formally establishing the institution which raises legal issues about the status of the institution and we agreed, and forwarded a draft bill to the House of Assembly to formally pass the Bill to enable us, as it were, formally establish in law the School of Nursing and Midwifery.
“This is an old institution. It has produced several nurses and midwives over the years and somehow there was no formal set up and as they say, better late than never. The School of Nursing was established many years ago and I think at the level of the Federal Ministry of Health, there are issues arising from the absence of enabling laws with regards to the School of Nursing and Midwifery in Edo State.
“Again, I want to appreciate Mr. Speaker, the Deputy Speaker, the Principal Officers of the House and indeed, all members of the State House of Assembly for passing the Nursing Amendment which have gone to help to enrich our institution and I now have the honour to formally sign into law. Of course, with the enactment of this law, that legal vacuum that existed over the years has now been filled and I believe the Hon Commissioner for Health and all those involved in Health administration will be relieved as a result of this enactment.”
Also, “we have a Law that provides for the establishment of Primary Health Care Development Agency and other matters connected therewith.
“This particular legislation is an Executive Bill which the House of Assembly has graciously considered and passed for the Executive to sign into law. Over the period, different levels of government for variety of reasons have devoted huge resources constructing various health centres, primary health care centres across the 18 local government areas. Some built by Federal Government through so called constituency projects, some by local government and some by state government and some through the Millennium Development Goal Agency.
“The result is that we have what we call proliferation of various health centres across the state. This is extremely helpful if these health centres are properly managed. They tend to provide opportunity for our people across the state especially rural areas to have access to primary health care and only complicated cases are suppose to be referred to General Hospitals.
“But, in the absence of an agency to coordinate, it is difficult to monitor and to evaluate the activities of these health centres. In order to make it possible for us to have a centralized supervision to enable Government monitor what goes on in each of the health centres, with regards to facilities, with regard to medical personnel, whether doctors, nurses and other paramedical staffs, even issues of security of these facilities, we have had a conversation at the state Executive Council and we were unanimous that we needed to have an agency that will be charged with the responsibility of coordinating.
“Of course, it goes without saying that local governments have their own duties to maintain health centres in their localities and of course, state government too will have supervisory roles and because health issue is on the concurrent list, all of us have specific roles to play. The overall objective is to ensure that our people have access to qualitative primary health care across the state.
“I like to on behalf of myself and the Executive Arm thank the Speaker and members of the House of Assembly for keying into our vision in this regard and treating the bill in the manner that they did, timely. We now have a bill that has been passed by the House for me, in my capacity as the Governor to sign into law so that it will become operational.
“I want to assure you that once we have signed it into law, we will follow up with the consequential actions like constituting the agency and ensuring that it is manned by persons who are capable and competent to provide the services that the agency is expected to provide within the provisions of this law. So I want to thank you for coming this morning to witness this formal signing ceremony”.
The ceremony was witnessed by some members of the State House of Assembly led by the Deputy Speaker, Hon Bright Osayande and members of the State Executive Council.
