Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola yesterday said the state would no longer offer free medical service for terminal diseases such as kidney failure and other complicated health cases.
Fashola, who said the state government had gone a step further to provide best medical facilities that are not available in some African countries, urged residents to be health conscious.
He assured that the state would soon commission the cardiac and kidney centre to solve some of the problems that have made many Nigerians good health seekers abroad.
Speaking while commissioning the Trauma and Burn Centre at the Gbagada General Hospital, the governor urged the medical professionals to be committed, saying hospital and the infrastructures do not give health on their own, but the level of commitment of the healthcare providers.
He said: "The rate at which our population is growing is not commensurate at which our resource are growing. So, we can provide free health care for anti-natal care, we can provide treatment of malaria for certain segment of society. But we cannot provide for complex surgery, kidney, cancer, complicated childbirth free. This is what I think that citizens must sign up and be their own insurer from where the free health stops to take on and in a way that is cheap and convenient."
Fashola said the centre, which commenced operation in April, 2013 and had attended to 351 patients, adding that most of the patients were between ages 15 and 49.
The governor said: "The centre has provided healthcare service to 351 patients. Out of which 86 were admitted. The most common injuries were burns which constituted 24 per cent."
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide Idris, said the centre was established following the government's inability to adequately provide the needed healthcare for the Ijegun fire victims and others.
