Stakeholders in Kaduna State, including government officials, policymakers, and health experts, have converged to explore strategies to address workforce challenges in Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs).
The stakeholders’ meeting, held in Kaduna, aimed to advocate for increased primary healthcare service delivery and improved health outcomes in the state.
The Director of Programmes, Nigerian Health Watch, Dr Kemisola Agbaoye, said, “We are looking at two critical things, sustainable financing and improved workforce capacities,” Agbaoye said.
According to Agbaoye, Kaduna State has made significant progress in allocating 15 per cent or more of its budget to the health sector over the last three to four years.
However, she noted that there are still challenges in ensuring that these funds are released and adequately utilised to improve healthcare delivery at the primary level.
“The deliberations have been encouraging, and there have been very clear calls to action, some of which are the need for cash planning, the need to ensure that resources are prioritised, and the need to leverage digital and data for budget performance tracking and implementation,” Agbaoye said.
The Permanent Secretary, Planning and Budget Commission, Kaduna State, Bashir Mohammed, emphasised the government’s commitment to providing timely goods and services to its citizens.
He described the health sector as one of the most important services that the government should look at, noting that the Kaduna State government has been trying to maintain the 15 per cent allocation of its budget to the health sector.
“We have identified some gaps and advised on prioritisation, cash planning, and budget performance tracking to improve health service delivery in the state.
“Moving forward, it is hoped that welfare for health workers will be improved. Sometimes it is not just about salaries but about allowances and other welfare things that make the retention of health personnel in the state key and very important,” Mohammed said.
The Commissioner of Health, Hajiya Umma Ahmed, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Dr Aishatu Sadiq, disclosed that the state faces recurrent healthcare burdens and service delivery challenges to its 10.6 million citizens. She noted that the state currently recorded a multidimensional poverty index of 88 per cent, with a higher value of 89 per cent for females.
“Even though the state government has taken deliberate steps in managing the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) to channel resources directly to PHC facilities, sustainability is not guaranteed by funding alone but requires transparent disbursement and tracking mechanisms, community participation in budget planning and monitoring, and a commitment to result-oriented spending,” she said.
To address these challenges, the state is exploring models such as state-level health trust funds, performance-based financing pilots, and the integration of community-based health insurance schemes to improve equity and reduce out-of-pocket expenditure, especially for the poor and vulnerable.
The state has also developed a human resource for health policy, generated a cost implementation plan, and obtained executive approval to commence recruitment processes.
According to Ahmed, this will enable the state to recruit midwives and CHIPS agents for underserved wards, reposition the Primary Health Care Development Agency (SPHCDA) to improve training, supervision, and workforce planning, and strengthen collaboration with partners to deliver continuous professional development.
Our correspondent reports that the policy will also explore incentives, including rural hardship allowances and career progression schemes, to retain talent where it is needed most and mitigate the state’s brain drain challenges.
The stakeholders’ meeting is a significant step towards addressing the workforce challenges in Kaduna State’s primary healthcare sector.
With the state’s commitment to improving healthcare delivery and the exploration of innovative models to address these challenges, there is hope for improved health outcomes for the citizens of Kaduna State.
Kaduna To Revamp Primary Health Care Centers is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
Source: The Whistler