Primary Health Care Just another Lagos State Government site
Dr. Olajide Idris is the Commissioner for Health for Lagos State, Nigeria’s most populous State, with 22 million inhabitants. He is responsible for health care planning, health policy formulation, implementation as well as supervising health service delivery in the State.
Under his leadership, initially as Permanent Secretary and recently as Chief Executive, the Lagos State’s Health system has been significantly upgraded, through a comprehensive Health Sector Reform agenda covering systems reorganization, human resource development, infrastructural development, revitalization of the primary care system, healthcare financing, health promotion and disease prevention activities. Such activities / initiatives in Lagos State include:
- Providing policy direction for health development and facilitating the provision of relevant regulatory frameworks.
- Infrastructural upgrade spanning the three levels of the system.
- Implementing Healthcare financing strategies including Community-based Health Insurance pilot schemes.
- Health promotion and Disease Prevention Program Development and Implementation.
Dr. Idris has over 30 years’ experience in Medical Practice, Healthcare Systems Management, Consulting, Pharmaceutical and Research. In Medical Practice, he has worked as a medical doctor in his early and mid-career stages at hospitals and for private companies in Nigeria. He also worked with two premier healthcare consulting companies covering healthcare planning and research, hospital management and direct provision of clinical services. His primary research and publications have been in the cardiology field as a post-doctoral research fellow at the Columbia University, USA.
Dr. Idris attended the highly respected King’s College, Lagos, Nigeria. He is a graduate of the College of Medicine of the University of Lagos, Nigeria, obtained his Master of Public Health (MPH) degree from the Yale University, Connecticut, USA, and was a post-doctoral research fellow at the Columbia University, New York, USA.
Dr. Idris led the Lagos State response team in mobilizing the resources, coordinating the collaboration with the Federal Government of Nigeria and other International partners in the rapid containment of the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in Lagos, Nigeria.
He is a member of the American Public Health Association, the Nigerian Medical Association and a Board member, University of Ibadan Research Foundation as well as the Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria.
He enjoys listening to jazz and playing golf.
