To ensure that more residents of Rivers State have access to quality healthcare, Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike on Wednesday flagged off the private hospitals loan scheme.

The first batch of the scheme shall witness 37 hospitals in the state access N500million to upgrade their facilities and improve their service to the people.

Seven of the beneficiaries are non-indigenes, while 30 are from Rivers State.

Flagging off the Private Hospitals Loan Scheme at the Government House, Port Harcourt, Wike urged the private medical practitioners to apply the loans judiciously.

He said that the state government will pay the interest on the loans on behalf of the beneficiaries, while the beneficiaries will pay the principal sum.

The governor said: “This loan is for the private hospitals to improve their facilities. It is not meant for the owners of the hospitals to solve personal problems.

“Private hospitals are critical to healthcare delivery in the state, hence our decision to create this loan scheme to support their improvement”.

He noted that the beneficiaries of the N500million loan will form the first batch, pointing out that their successful application of the funds will lead to another batch.

In his remarks, Rivers State Health Commissioner, Dr Theophilus Odagme lauded the governor for his investment in the health sector.

He said at present 17 general hospitals are being rehabilitated by the Wike administration, while majority of the resolutions of the meeting the governor held with the Nigerian Medical Association.

The commissioner appealed to the private medical practitioners to pay back the loans, so that others can benefit.

Representative of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr Ibitoru Korubo, said that the governor’s intervention will help in reviving the health sector in the state.

Responding on behalf of the beneficiaries, Dr Sunny Obele of Sonabel Medical Centre, Eleme said that the Private Hospitals Loan Scheme should be emulated by other states and the Federal Government.

He said that the intervention was relevant because 80 percent of Nigerians access healthcare through private health facilities.

Meanwhile, some experts in the health sector in Rivers State have given their support to the new Rivers State Government loan to private hospitals in the state.

Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike announced a N500 million loan scheme for private hospitals last two months after meeting with stakeholders in the health sector.

Chairman State Primary School Board, Prof. Princewill Chike, told The Tide in a chat that the scheme will boost health care services as against the view that such loan should have been channelled to public hospitals.

Chike said, “This kind of thing has never been done in the country before and this is how India overtook many other countries in health care delivery today.”

The professor of medicine argued that since the country has huge manpower in the health sector, such loan scheme will help boost facilities, research and encourage the private practitioners to improve their services and even reduce their charges on the public.

With improved services and facilities in the private hospitals, Chike maintained that pressure on government hospitals will also be reduced.

He, however, pointed out that the scheme introduced by Wike administration will challenge the Federal Government to meet its statutory obligations of funding health care, while revealing that since this year health care centres in the state have not received federal funding, except the ones remitted by the state and local governments.

Chike submitted that, “the present government has the interest of the people at heart. So, for me, the gesture the governor extended to the private hospitals is not to kill public hospitals but will rather aid them to meet standards and services they offer.”

Chairman of the Private Hospital Loan Scheme and Vice Chancellor of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Prof Blessing Didia, explained that what the Wike administration has demonstrated is to replicate what obtains abroad.

“If you travel overseas you will discover that most of the hospitals there do not actually belong to the government even in Dubai where most of us go to take treatment. So this loan scheme will ensure that many Nigerians don’t travel abroad again,” Didia stated.

In the light of this, Didia held that government has provided a platform for private hospitals to raise their services and standards, assuring that if the pilot scheme succeeds then a second batch of private hospitals will get the loan.

He explained that the beneficiaries about 37 of them are to get moratorium of three months before paying back, as the state government has taken care of the interest already.

Meanwhile, Commissioner for Health, Dr. Theophilus Odagme, has ruled out political considerations in the selection of hospitals which benefitted from the scheme.

He told The Tide that a careful selection process was carried out and that, “this loan was not given to PDP or APC members. There were no political considerations whatever because we had town hall meeting with the Nigerian Medical Association and nobody was asked whether he was APC or PDP.”

The commissioner promised that the loan will be utilized by the hospitals selected, and promised that when once the first batch ends, the second phase will kick off.

He also defended the scheme with the view that it will reduce pressure on public hospitals pointing out that most of the newly rehabilitated public hospitals will serve as referrals to the health centres in the rural areas.