The Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has said his government is reconstructing and repurposing the state-owned School of Health Technology to meet the manpower needs of the global health industry.
Obaseki said this during an inspection tour of facilities at the Edo State School of Health Technology, in Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area of the state.
The governor said the government is pursuing a holistic reform in the health sector, reassuring that the school of health technology will be transformed into a world-class institution to provide the needed manpower to support and sustain ongoing reforms in the healthcare sector.
Obaseki noted, “The school was established 64 years ago to provide middle level manpower to support our healthcare system. With the revamp of our healthcare system, we are emphasizing primary healthcare. The institutions that train the manpower for the primary healthcare system is supposed to be the school of health technology. This school will be revamped to international standards to make the state a force to reckon with in terms of quality healthcare services.
“As a government, we want to make sure that the institution that trains and prepares our staff to work at the primary healthcare level is of world standard.
“We also see the opportunity of training our people to work abroad as there are huge shortage of intermediate medical personnel and we have been approached and want to build a school and facility that can pass the test of international certification as well as the training of manpower for the primary and intermediate level of our primary healthcare system.”
The governor added, “We cannot train our health personnel in this kind of facility and environment. Training health personnel in this kind of facility would be a joke and as an administration, we don’t joke with health issues. We have a standard and a model on revamping infrastructure in the state. We have done it with the Edo School of Nursing Sciences. In the first quarter of next year, you will see our footprint here as we would do all possible to reposition this school to international standard.”
The governor said his government will also build a language school within the institution where healthcare personnel will be trained to bridge the language barrier when they travel abroad to bridge the huge shortage of intermediate medical personnel.
