Despite stringent criticisms trailing the introduction of Residency Cards, popularly called Kaadi Igbe Ayo, the Ondo State Government on Wednesday instructed all heads of public hospitals and health centres in the state to enforce the use of the card in their various locations.
According to a statement issued by the Ondo State Commissioner of Information, Kayode Akinmade, the directive was handed down by the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Dayo Adeyanju, at a meeting with some public health coordinators at the Mother and Child Hospital, Akure.
The statement quotes Adeyanju as saying that the residency card scheme was not aimed at making money from the people of the state, as being speculated but that it became necessary owing to the fact that those benefitting from the free medical services provided by the government were non-indigenes.
According to Adeyanju, residents of the state who have obtained the card, especially pregnant women and children from age one to five, now receive free medical services while those without the card would be made to pay stipends for the medical services rendered to them.
He said: “People must be made to see the need for the card. The residence card has become operational in all government facilities. The meeting with the public health coordinators becomes imperative so as to sensitise the head of facilities on the commencement of the card use. The Ondo State Government is not relenting in its efforts to providing free medical services to the people.
“What is operational at the moment in the state is that non-indigene who troop in for normal virginal delivery that people pay between N10,000 and N15,000 to do and Caesarean section are done freely, thus necessitating the influx of people into the state to access the services . Such people must be made to pay for services rendered.”
He therefore encouraged those who had registered for the card to visit their registration centres to collect them.
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