By; ALEX UANGBAOJE, Kaduna
Kaduna State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Amina Muhammed Baloni, on Thursday, tasked Civil Society Organizations, donor agencies and other relevant stakeholders to help drive sensitization for the informal sector enrollment into the state’s Health Insurance Scheme.
Dr. Amina, noted that the informal sector which accounts for about 99.9% of the state’s population, is not on Health Insurance Scheme, a situation she said, is not helping the sector.
She made the appeal during the dissemination of Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) spot check finding for quarter four of 2022, by Kaduna State Maternal Accountability Mechanism (KADMAM) with support from Legislative Initiative for Sustainable Development (LISDEL) and Evidence for Action (E4A MamaYe).
According to her, the health sector performance for last quarter of 2022, as presented by the mechanism, was an evidence of the State government’s commitment to the health care of her citizens.
“The score card is showing the efforts that the Kaduna State ministry of health and it’s other agencies has done in improving the health sector of Kaduna State, though we are not quite there yet.
“We accept that we have some areas we have to improve, this is what I want to leave for the next administration to build on. They will build on what has already been achieved to correct some of the lapses and improve on what has been done.
“I think the team health should be recognized for what has been done, I thank the Governor especially for his commitment to health.
“The challenges we have with financing is not a lack of commitment by the government, it is generally the economic recession, recall that in years past where there’s no recession these funds were released very frequently giving the resources we have for everything.” The Commissioner explained.
She advised the incoming government to prioritize health because according to her, “this is the basis for which production of the citizens will continue.”
She charged all agencies under the ministry to be responsible for the feedback for the referrals system of the BHCPF to improve service delivery, urging them to establish proper reporting system
Dr. Baloni, urged the mechanism and other partners to stick to the ministry’s BHCPF checklist to avoid duplication of standard, commending them for their support, adding that if all what the ministry budgeted for health were to be released, the state would have seen wonders in health care service delivery.
The BHCPF performance score card, presented by KADMAM’s Evidence Sub-committee Chair, Abdulrahaman Mikail, showed that the state government did well in the last quarter of 2022, in terms of governance, coverage and service delivery, except for three aspects of service where the performance was scored 0%.
The survey which was a pilot for BHCPF performance in the state was conducted conducted in the four metropolitan Local Government Areas of Chikun, Igabi, Kaduna North and Kaduna.
According to findings, the state failed to release its 25% counterpart funding for BHCPF throughout 2022, and did not also release the one per cent equity funds for same period. The survey equally showed that only 34 per cent children under 1 year age accessed immunization during the period.
Earlier in her welcome address, representative of KADMAM, Co-chair, Mrs. Dorcas Adeyemi, thanked the commissioner for always giving the mechanism the requisite support to carry out their responsibilities.
She said their intention is to support government to succeed in delivering quality, affordable and accessible healthcare services to the citizens.
Mrs. Adeyemi therefore, called on the ministry to act on the recommendations made by “ensuring adequate supply of vaccines and consumables to designated facilities in the state. We request Kaduna State Government to release the one per cent consolidated revenue monthly as approved in 2023 budget.
“We are requesting state government to timely release and cashback the 25% state counterpart funding for BHCPF implementation. The state MOH should provide adequate feedback mechanism between primary and secondary health facilities to enhance referral for BHCPF enrollees.”
On their part, representatives of E4A MamaYe and LISDEL, Elkana Aliyu and Adedamilola Ademuyiwa, commended the state government for always opening their doors to partners to contribute their support to government efforts.
They promised to continue to support government within their resources to ensure an improved healthcare delivery system.
