From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, has disclosed that health population outcomes of Nigeria is improving significantly, thus pushing for sustenance.
Prof. Pate told journalists at the maiden quarterly performance dialogue meeting between the federal and state governments, as well as development partners in Abuja, on Monday, that data harvested from the District Health Information System (DHIS) platform indicated significant improvement in healthcare services in Nigeria particularly at the Primary Health Care (PHC) centres.
The Minister recalled that on December 12, 2023, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, unveiled the Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative which all State Governors and the FCT signed a compact with the Federal Government to work collaboratively towards improving population health outcomes for Nigerians.
“These include improving Penta 3 coverage, increasing the proportion of fully immunized children, reducing the number of zero-dose children, enhancing the proportion of deliveries attended by skilled birth attendants, improving antenatal care coverage, and increasing access to health insurance and primary healthcare services. That has improved significantly across the states as indicated by the data collated.
“We also committed to tracking the utilization rates of various services and the satisfaction of our population. States were equally encouraged to track their progress against these indicators. To this end, we had the first quarterly performance dialogue meeting where the scorecards were presented from all the states of the federation. The presentation gave us clear idea on where the states are as regards provision of quality healthcare services for the people.
“There were obvious gaps in data collection and management but we ain’t surprised because of some obvious teething challenges. Nevertheless, we are glad that we are beginning to use figure to assess our performance in health care services. This is a good start for us, and if we can sustain that, we should expect more significant improvement in health care services in Nigeria.
“We had data challenges in the past but with the initiatives on data management, they would improve soon. We have began to collate accurate data from about 34,000 health care facilities in Nigeria through the DHIS platform. We would train the health workers to improve their capacity and the quality of data collection and management system using the DHIS platform.”
The Minister also confirmed that there was extensive discussions on the implications of the Supreme Court judgement on local government financial autonomy, and how that could be used to improve the health population of the people at the rural communities.