Ogun State Government on Tuesday inaugurated a Health Data Governance Council (HDGC) to strengthen health information and quality data for healthcare development.
The council, chaired by the Commissioner for Health, Dr Tomi Coker, comprised her counterpart in the Ministry for Budget and Planning, Mr Olaolu Olabimtan, permanent secretaries, Ministry of Health and that of Hospitals Management Board (HMB).
Others are the state’s Statistician General, executive secretaries of agencies in the health sector, representatives of the National Population Commission (NPC), as well as World Health Organisation (WHO), among others.
The commissioner for health said during the inauguration in Abeokuta that the council at the state level, would help navigate effective allocation of resources for healthcare delivery, which she said had been a challenge over the years.
She added that it would fast-track the present administration’s mission to strengthen the state health systems and make quality healthcare accessible to residents in rural and urban areas.
Coker described the availability of quality data as essential to effective formulation of healthcare policies. She said activities of the council would enable effective routine healthcare service delivery and response to health emergencies.
She added that “the significance of this inauguration is underscored by the fact that we need to create efficient data management at the strategic level. We have data but I must say that it is not quality enough which impacts our ability to formulate policies and allocate resources effectively.”
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr Kayode Oladehinde, had reiterated the state government’s readiness to upscale health data management and governance.
Oladehinde called on members of the council to deploy their experience to the tasks at hand.
The Coordinator, World Health Organisation in the state, Dr Akinola Fatiregun, appreciated the state government for constituting the council, saying the body should always emphasise quality data.
NAN/Wumi
