States Must Establish One Functional Primary Health Care Per Ward – Group

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.