FMoH launches “support programme” to bridge gaps in primary health
The federal health ministry has launched the Technical Support Programme (TSP) in efforts to help bridge gaps that have hindered the National Primary Health Care Development Agency from providing technical support and assistance to states. At the launch of the TSP in Abuja on Tuesday, health minister Isaac Adewole called it a “structured and more […]
The federal health ministry has launched the Technical Support Programme (TSP) in efforts to help bridge gaps that have hindered the National Primary Health Care Development Agency from providing technical support and assistance to states.
At the launch of the TSP in Abuja on Tuesday, health minister Isaac Adewole called it a “structured and more responsive platform” for technical support to end years of the agency’s inability to effectively deliver support to states.
The TSP signals continuing shift of government to invest in primary health care as a “prime centre of our attention”, away from teaching hospitals at the start of the administration.
“We will be wasting our time and energy if we decide to go that route. We have done that already and we have not really achieved the desired result, and so we have to turn things around and focus of primary health care,” said Adewole.
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He said investment in primary health care has jumped from 16% of the health budget to 64% in the last two years, “gulping the largest chunk of our allocation.”
Interactions between the agency and states requesting technical support have historically been “very complex”, said the agency’s executive director Faisal Shuaib.
Too many players facilitated conversations on state needs between the state primary health care development agencies and the national body, most times through both formal and information channels, said Shuaib.
“The complexities in these reactions could only result in limited visibility into the support requested by the states and that delivered by the NPHCDA,” he explained.
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Delivering technical assistance was also poor coordinated because of a “lack of a dedicated channel and clearly defined procedures within NPHCDA through which states can formally request for support.”
“Consequently, the available but limited resources and underutilised and mismanaged as efforts are duplicated in some states while others are completely neglected,” Shuaib said.
The TSP is developed in collaboration with Solina Health, with funding from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in efforts to improve primary health care.