Expert scores Kaduna high in
implementations of PHCUOR.
By: Femi Mustapha
A Consultant with Save Children International (SCI), Dr David Olayemi, has said Kaduna state is far ahead of other States in the implementation of Primary Health Care Under One Roof (PHCUOR).
He asserted this during a Two-day Stakeholders meeting on the assessment of the implementation of the Save the Children International Anchor Grant IV. held in Kaduna yesterday.
The Consultant disclosed that the success wouldn’t be attributed to SCI but rather the willingness of the Kaduna State government to Implement Primary Health Care Under One Roof (PHCUOR)effectively, which is very clear from others.
“I must confess that we have not looked at the service delivery end of it which is the most important part because even if the system is strong, we must see what the service delivery looks like, and what is being delivered especially the impact on mothers and children who represent the essence of healthcare delivery in this part of the world.
“What it means is that we are supposed to see that maternal mortality ratio is reducing and that, under-five mortality is reducing significantly, but that has not been demonstrated because we didn’t look at the indices as part of this evaluation.
“We are only looking at the system itself in terms of what government has been able to do in response to what Partners have been able to initiate in Kaduna State, particularly in the last four years.”
Speaking on the Anchor Grant IV. Dr. Olayemi said Save the Children was given a grant by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation about four years ago to advocate for the strengthening of primary healthcare in Kaduna State.
According to him after four years, it became necessary for SCI and Stakeholders to evaluate the implementation as well as the impact of the project.
He added that the meeting is to develop a write-up shop that will demonstrate what SCI has been able to do and what it has achieved over the four years.
Also speaking, the Desk Officer, Primary Health Care Board, Kaduna. said the government of Senator Uba Sani is on the move to achieve Universal Health Coverage, and one of the steps is to ensure that the Primary Health Care Centres (PHCs) meet the recommended standard.
Kaduna State PHCs, according to him, are under phase one. So, the need to raise these facilities to phase two came up.
He added that for this to happen, the PHCs have to be climate resilient; they must have at least 13 rooms, running water in essential rooms, and an adequate number of toilets to cater to patients and staff.
Then, accomodations for the staff. At least every facility should have two self-contained apartments to accommodate the staff to ensure 24-hour service, especially the midwives.
Again, all the facilities should be fenced and lighted. Kaduna State has gone far in this regard. About 185 of these PHCs have been upgraded to solar systems by the state government.
Now, talking about staffing, the Impact project has done a good thing by ensuring that every facility gets N100,000 per month to engage ad-hoc staff to complement the existing staff. This is starting in the year 2025.
“All these are about the revitalization I talked about earlier. Currently, the IMPACT project, which is a grant from the World Bank through the federal government, Kaduna is lucky to be one of the selected states.
“This is touching 143 facilities to be revitalized within the next six weeks. As we speak, out of the seven slots that have been grouped for this, the contractors have been mobilized to start the revitalization” He said
Similarly, Kaduna State Coordinator of Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN) Jessica Bartholomew observed that her organization has been engaged with Save the Children through the Gates Fund and we have gone through different phases of system strengthening in terms of capacity building for CSOs to be able to advocate for increased resources for nutrition.
She added the Alliance also ensures that there is a six-month paid maternity leave advocacy and establishes departments and budget lines for nutrition in Kaduna State.
According to her, a lot has been done, and the Alliance is truly grateful for the partnership they have been able to build with SCI because it has helped them to work and build a relationship with the State government in advocating for scaling up nutrition in Kaduna State.
“So we are looking for ways to sustain some of these beautiful, innovative programs to be able to scale-up nutrition and those are some of the challenges of sustainability.
“In addressing sustainability, it is very important that as we are bringing in project initiatives, we are also coming together with methodologies that it can be sustained, owned the the Community and the State to advocate for improved nutrition in Kaduna State.
“Currently, the State is interested in preventive nutrition interventions which includes maternal infant and young child nutrition.
“This addresses pregnancy from conception, that is, the 1000 days of the window; it also covers antenatal, delivery, early initiation, exclusive breastfeeding, and complementary feeding with breastfeeding to two years.
“It also covers adolescent nutrition with talk about how those components of a girl and boy child can grow up healthy and strong and be able to improve the circle of life.
“It also covers the aspect of providing nutrition commodities like the MMS for pregnant women, IFA, Vitamin-A, and deworming for children, and these are the aspects the government has invested into.
“Currently, the State government has given 400 million to UNICEF for counterpart funding to procure nutrition commodities.”
