By Chioma Umeha
States have been urged to establish State Primary
Health Care Development Board (SPHCDB) and make it fully functional in line
with the national guidelines to ensure proper implementation of a functional
Primary Health Care (PHC) per ward.
The call was contained in a communique which was
issued at the end of a two-day meeting on Primary Health Care (PHC)
implementation roll out for Southwest and Edo states. The two-day meeting was
jointly organised by United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and
National Primary Healthcare Development Agencies (NPHCDA) and representatives
of SPHCDB recently, at Ibadan, Oyo State to deliberate on the implementation of
PHC roll out in the Southwest and Edo states.
Participants, mainly, Permanent and Executive
Secretaries were drawn from seven states, including; Lagos, Ondo, Oyo, Osun,
Ekiti, Ogun and Edo States noted that the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) and
NPHCDA need to disseminate the national guidelines to wider stakeholders to
facilitate states domestication.
The participants cut across the Ministry of
Health, State Primary Health Care Development Boards/Agencies, Ministry of
Economic Planning & Budget, Ministry of Local government & Chieftaincy
Affairs, Water Sanitation Hygiene (WASH), Association of Local Governments of
Nigeria (ALGON) of individual states and NPHCDA, UNICEF and media were also in
attendance.
The communique also urged states to convene
meetings of relevant stakeholders to help the understanding, planning and
implementation of Primary Health Care Under One Roof (PHCUOR) and One
Functional Primary Health Care Under (1FPHC) per ward in their respective
states. It called on State Primary Health Care Development Boards (SPHCDBs) to
revitalize Ward Development Committees to ensure community ownership.
The communique said: “Each SPHCDB should routinely
monitor the implementation of PHCUOR. “Steering committees and Technical
working groups should be established in all states and include all relevant
partners.”
According to the communique, SPHCDBs should have a
clear-cut funding source namely; one per cent Consolidated Revenue funds from
the Federal government; annual budgetary provisions for PHC by the State governments;
annual budgetary provisions for PHC by the Local governments through the Joint
Account Allocation Committee (JAAC); grants and support from development
partners. It also said: “There should be clarity of roles and responsibilities
of all stakeholders in line with the national guidelines.
“All PHC workers in various MDAs should be
repositioned to the SPHCDBs for full implementation of PHCUOR. “The ALGON
Chairman should be made a member of the board of SPHCDB at the state level and
the Chairman of the LGA or his representative should be made the Chairman of
the Local Government Health Authority (LGHA).” It further said that routine
zonal and state level stakeholders meeting should be held to review
implementation status of 1FPHC/ward and PHCUOR should be organized by states
and partners. The communique further read: “State strategic health plans is to
be developed with inputs from all relevant partners in the state.
“States should review the national guideline and
submit a harmonized input from the zone to NPHCDA for consideration in
subsequent review of the guidelines.” The communique was signed by: Dr. O.A.D.
Odiko – Director, PHC, Edo State; Mr. Yemi Owoseni – Permanent Secretary,
Ministry of Local Government &Chief Affairs, Ekiti State; Dr. Fausat Sanni
– Director, Medical Services PHCB, Lagos State; Mr. Oladele Mojeed-Ekelojumati
–ALGON Chairman, Ogun State; Dr. A.O. Ademujimi – Deputy Director Medical
Services PHCDB, Ondo State; Dr. Kayode Ogunniyi – Director, PHC/DC MoH, Osun
State; Mr. L.A. Osungbekun – Director, Development Partnership, SPC, Oyo State;
Mr. Steven Akinrinade – State Coordinator, NPHCDA Oyo State and Mr. Muhammad
Okorie – OIC, UNICEF, Lagos Office.
