Fashola commissions 1st BURNS centre in 9ja - says no more free medical services

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, yesterday, said the state would no longer provide free medical services to patients suffering terminal diseases, even as he commissioned the first Trauma and Burns Centre in the country.

The Governor, who spoke while commissioning the centre at the Gbagada General Hospital, Kosofe Local Government Area of the state, explained that the state free healthcare policy could not cover terminal diseases like complicated surgeries, child birth, kidney and cancer, among others

He, however, said the state would continue to provide free healthcare on ante-natal care, malaria, especially for certain segments of the society.

According to him: “This is why I think that citizens must sign up to medical insurance. This is because when we complete the challenges of infrastructure and welfare, we will move to the most defining issue, which is medical insurance.

“With this, citizens will be their own insurance from where the free healthcare stops.”

Giving reasons for the decision, Fashola said: “The rate, at which our population is growing, is not commensurate with the rate at which the state resources are growing.”