Bauchi unveils health scorecard, sets up peer review with Kano

Bauchi state government is to set up a peer review for its health sector with Kano state, Bauchi governor Mohammed Abubakar announced Wednesday. Abubakar made the announcement in Abuja while launching a first-ever green-yellow-red scorecard for the performance review of Bauchi’s “Lafiya Garkuwa”—a five-point health agenda launched September 2015, 100 days after he took office. […]

Bauchi state government is to set up a peer review for its health sector with Kano state, Bauchi governor Mohammed Abubakar announced Wednesday.

Abubakar made the announcement in Abuja while launching a first-ever green-yellow-red scorecard for the performance review of Bauchi’s “Lafiya Garkuwa”—a five-point health agenda launched September 2015, 100 days after he took office.

The review scored Bauchi 75% green average on strengthening primary health care and improving health funding.

Access to cost-effective drugs, motivation and retention of health workforce and demand creation via health education and awareness scored at least a yellow 52%.

Bauchi is the first state to submit itself to self review, but the governor said a peer review with Kano could help it learn “areas where we have recorded success and areas where we are lagging behind.”

“We have a lot to learn from each other, if we cooperate fully. We have to work to gird our loins to improve in all the areas where you see red,” explained Abubakar.

In a break down, Bauchi scored an entire 100% for committing 16% of its budget to health for the second year in a row, according to the governor expected to sign the 2017 budget next week.

Abubakar said, “The policies are not mere political rhetoric. That’s why I agreed to this self assessment and threw it open]” for evaluation.

Dr Aminu Magashi, director of Community Health and Research Initiative, which helped Bauchi develop the scorecard, said assessment strengths and weaknesses made for increasing accountability to the public.

He said Bauchi had stepped up in “not just launching a scorecard, but agreeing to launch a scorecard.”

The increased health finance helped the state pay counterpart funding it needs for interventions across the state—including the Saving One Million Lives Initiative, implementation of the Primary Health Care Under One Roof

Last week, the state got a board for its Primary Health Care Development Agency to regulate health care, and plans to construct 19 primary health centres in each local government area, with a staff quarter to help retain health workers, water source and ambulance.