Primary Health Care: Development Partners Pull N5bn For Bauchi State
…As State government releases counterpart funds
BY ADEYEMI AKANJI, BAUCHI – Following the release of N320m as counterpart funding by the Bauchi State government, other development partners that include USAID, UNICEF, CIDA, Dangote Foundation, Bill and Melinda Foundation and others have pulled together N5billion to serve as technical support for the implementation of the Primary Health Coverage program for 2021/2021 period in the State.
The Bauchi State government said the release of the counterpart funding is part of its resolve to promote effective primary Healthcare service delivery in line with best world practices.
The State Director of USAID funded Integrated Health Program (IHP), Dr Alhassan Siaka, who announced this while facilitating Media engagement in Healthcare delivery workshop in Misau on Monday, said with such commitment by the state government, the objective of the project would be achieved.
Siaka said that the aim is to ensure that the primary Healthcare delivery service is improved to minimize negative impact at that level of service delivery, stressing that if the primary Healthcare coverage is strengthened, the secondary and tertiary would have less issues to handle.
On the issue of records keeping at the Primary Healthcare level, he said that 23,000 health management information tools have been made available to all the 323 PHCs across the state.
According to him; “Without accurate data, it will be difficult to manage issues of improving healthcare service delivery. Maternal mortality and neonatal morbidity can be effectively managed when there is accuracy in records keeping.
Siaka assured that personnel are being trained in order to ensure that data is accurately kept and made available, adding that early referrals from the PHCs to the next stage of health service is very important in order to reduce risks of complication, pointing out that as it is now, more deaths are recorded at the secondary level due to delays in referrals particularly from hard to reach (HTR) facilities.
He called on the media to advocate for improved government commitment and policy change as part of efforts in strengthening health system as well access and improve quality of integrated primary health care.
He said; “There is what the media can do to ensure that information around leadership, governance and health sector in general is made available to the public as well as the decision making population, so that reliable information forms the basis for decision made by the authorities concerned”.
