THE Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola, and the Senate Minority Whip, Ganiyu Solomon, have expressed the need for greater collaboration between public and private sectors in the area of providing healthcare delivery.

Speaking at the commissioning of First Heritage Hospital and Diagnostic Centre, in Mushin, Lagos, at the weekend, both government functionaries maintained that such collaboration would do the health sector a lot of good, even as the citizens would be better taken care of.

Fashola, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Public Health, Dr. Yewande Adeshina, at the occasion, maintained that the model hospital was established with the aim of providing the people at the area with their health needs at affordable rate.

She stressed that the primary function of the Primary Health Care (PHC) has gone beyond the treatment of common childhood diseases, immunisation to an era where one could go for screening for some complex killer diseases at such centres.

Adeshina stated that the Lagos State government had established 10 of such model centres, which she stressed, were of high standards, adding however that the government could not provide for all the health needs of the citizens.

Expressing satisfaction with the standard equipment and staff of the First Heritage Hospital and Diagnostic Centre, she maintained that the government would be referring critical cases to the facility, expressing the hope that the charges there would be affordable to the people in the locality.

On his own, Solomon, Senator representing Lagos West Senatorial District, thanked the management of the First Heritage Hospital and Diagnostic Centre for establishing the state-of-art facilities at the area instead of a highbrow area where they would have attracted more profit, describing it as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in action.

He expressed satisfaction with the standard of the facilities as well as the 10 already set up by the Lagos State government, even as he expressed the hope that such could be replicated in all the 744 local government of the nation.

Chairman of the First Heritage Hospital and Diagnostic Centre, Dr. Sesan Onabowale, and the Medical Director, Dr. Babatunde Keku, in their separate addresses restated that health services were essential and that people cannot rely solely on government to provide healthcare delivery.

They also stressed that the services at the centre would be assessable and affordable even as they would be of utmost standard.

He pledged that the centre would provide robust healthcare system to the people of the locality.