The Lagos State Health Management Agency (LASHMA) has commenced a statewide facility readiness assessment across all ILERA EKO-empanelled hospitals ahead of enforcing the Executive Order on Mandatory Social Health Insurance.
The Permanent Secretary of LASHMA, Dr. Emmanuella Zamba, disclosed this at the Agency’s headquarters in Alausa, Ikeja, noting that the exercise began with public health facilities, including General Hospitals and Primary Health Centres, as well as high-traffic private hospitals under the scheme.
She explained that the assessment is a baseline evaluation aimed at determining the level of compliance and readiness of healthcare facilities to effectively implement the policy across the state.
Zamba added that the exercise will be extended to other private facilities and will also assess hospitals’ capacity to enrol uninsured patients, while identifying and registering vulnerable individuals for access to quality healthcare services.
She described the compliance assessment as a crucial step toward ensuring full implementation of the Executive Order, helping to identify gaps, enforce standards, and strengthen operational guidelines under the ILERA EKO Health Insurance Plan.
According to her, participating hospitals are expected to meet key requirements, including appointing focal persons, deploying trained ILERA EKO desk officers, maintaining screening tools, clear signage, complaint procedures, and ensuring staff availability at all times.
Zamba noted that the initiative aligns with the state government’s goal of achieving Universal Health Coverage and reaffirmed LASHMA’s commitment to improving healthcare access, quality, and efficiency through sustained monitoring and collaboration with stakeholders.
She urged residents to enrol in the ILERA EKO scheme, which covers over 75 percent of common health conditions, adding that LASHMA is also working with private medical practitioners to expand the scheme, which currently has 765 healthcare providers across public and private facilities in the state.
