Treat patients with dignity, Ogun Health Commissioner charges
By Our Correspondent
Workers in the Ogun State health sector have been charged to attend to patients with respect and dignity in line with international best practices to enhance positive feedback for improved service delivery.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Tomi Coker, made this known while declaring open a Two-day Capacity Building workshop for Servicom Desk Officers in the Health Sector, organised by the Ministry of Health with technical support from the State’s Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) in Abeokuta.
Coker said that the goal of the present administration has been to match performance with the patients’ expectation,create awareness and encourage them to speak up when they are not getting the expected service.
Noting that the Servicom Desk Officers are important in the scheme of things of the state government in the health sector, the Commissioner said that the training was aimed at building officers’ capacity on managing expectation, reviewing performance and finding proper solution to bottlenecks.
Coker said that she would be meeting with the review committee every month for thorough assessment of situations, adding that the job of anyone in the health sector is to care for whoever comes around the hospital facility.
“You are not doing anyone a favour by being kind to patients. Medical profession is not a job per say, it is a calling which must be carried out with dignity. It is a response to the responsibility of having residents entrust us with their lives during their vulnerable moments.
“The feedback we will be getting from patients would enable us to determine how much we have done while we give attention to areas to improve on. It is therefore incubent on us to treat our patients with dignity and respects such that they will leave the hospital premises in better state of mind than they came, ” Coker said.
In his goodwill address, the Special Adviser to the Governor, Dr. Tayo Lawal, described the patients in the hospitals as clients who deserve the utmost attention, saying that Servicom Desk Officers and the entire health workers should guarantee that the hospital environment is conducive in line with best practices.
Welcoming the participants drawn from various health agencies, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Dr. Kayode Oladehinde, assured that the government has put everything in place to institutionalise Servicom in the health sector in order to bring improvement into service delivery.
The training had the Permanent Secretary, BPSR, Mr. Jola Oyeneye, Head of Servicom, Presidency, Mrs. Jummai Abdullahi as resource persons.
