The Ondo State Government has partnered with a non-governmental organisation, Lifespring Development Foundation, to manage the state’s healthcare commodities and prevent shortages or wastage, particularly of sexual and reproductive health commodities.
It was gathered that the partnership would enable the state to maintain proper records and data on the commodities needed to improve family planning, maternal and child health, and reproductive healthcare services.
Speaking at a two-day commodity forecasting and quantification training for state health workers on Friday, the state Reproductive Health Coordinator and Deputy Director of Family Health in the Ministry of Health, Dr Toyin Adeyalo-Ogundare, explained that the collaboration had been impactful on women of reproductive age and children in the state.
According to her, the partnership with the LSDF had commenced earlier in the year, adding that it was part of the implementation of the Federal Government’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Project.
She said, “It is a partner that has been with us since the beginning of this year. It is a consortium with another group. So they are implementing an SRH project by the Federal Government.
“So Ondo State is part of the beneficiary and this partnership is in three local governments – Ondo West, Ese Odo and Ifedore.”
The deputy director explained that the two-day workshop, sponsored by Lifespring Development Foundation in conjunction with the logistics management unit of the ministry, was aimed at building the capacity of workers responsible for forecasting and managing reproductive health commodities.
“This will help us to be able to forecast what we need using what we have used, data that we have used to forecast or to predict what we are likely to use so that we can, as much as possible, avoid understocking and expiry of healthcare commodities.”
She said the healthcare commodities procured by the government were for maternal and child health, family planning and other sexual and reproductive healthcare services.
“What we are trying to also look at is, because sometimes when you look at this data coming from the facilities, you can see that for this month, how regular are people coming and what kind of services out of the family planning should be offered, different types of family planning offers, which one are they using the most?
“Then when it is less, we look at it: why is it less? Is it because the commodities are not available in the facility? Or is it because they have finished using it quickly? So that’s what we are trying to look at and it will help us to make informed decisions,” Adeyalo-Ogundare stated.
Earlier, the state team lead of LSDF, Mercy Okeyode, explained that the training sought to strengthen the state’s health system by building the capacity of personnel responsible for forecasting and managing reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health commodities.
She noted that the workshop complemented previous investments in training healthcare providers and was designed to ensure that essential commodities were available where they were needed.
“The availability will thereby support quality service delivery and improve maternal health outcomes. The training is expected to enhance the capacity of participants to generate accurate forecasts, improve commodity distribution, reduce stock-outs and wastage, and strengthen the overall health supply chain in Ondo State,” Okeyode stated.