Stakeholders explore strategies for addressing workforce challenges in PHC

Stakeholders including the government, policymakers and experts in Kaduna State are exploring strategies for addressing workforce challenges in primary healthcare centres. This is in a bid to advance sustainable financing and workforce capacity for equitable primary healthcare delivery and improved health outcomes in Kaduna State. Some of these strategies are improving the conditions of service […]

Stakeholders including the government, policymakers and experts in Kaduna State are exploring strategies for addressing workforce challenges in primary healthcare centres.

This is in a bid to advance sustainable financing and workforce capacity for equitable primary healthcare delivery and improved health outcomes in Kaduna State.

Some of these strategies are improving the conditions of service of health workers and improved funding for the sector in general. 

Speaking at a policy dialogue in Kaduna, the Director of Programmes, Nigerian Health Watch (NHW), Dr Kemisola Agbaoye, said the policy dialogue in partnership with the Kaduna State government aims to advocate increased primary healthcare service delivery for improved health outcomes in the state.

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She said, “We are looking at two critical things, sustainable financing and improved workforce capacities. Kaduna has done quite a lot on improving allocations to the health sector, Kaduna has increasingly allocated 15 per cent or more to the health sector over the last three to four years.”

This, she said, was a good example for other states to follow, adding that, “We are also saying that there are still challenges in ensuring that these funds are released and adequately utilised to improve healthcare delivery at primary level.”

Also, Bashir Mohammed, Permanent Secretary, Planning and Budget Commission, Kaduna State, emphasised that the purpose of the government is to provide timely goods and services to its citizens.

While describing the health sector as one of the most important services that the government should look at, he noted that the Kaduna State government has been trying to maintain the 15 per cent allocation of its budget to the health sector and that has been consistent.

He said the meeting identified some gaps and advised on prioritisation, cash planning and budget performance tracking to improve health service delivery in the state.

In her keynote address, the Commissioner of Health, Hajiya Umma K. Ahmed, who was represented by the permanent secretary, Dr Aishatu Abubakar Sadiq, disclosed that the state faces recurrent healthcare burdens and service delivery challenges to its 10.6 million citizens.

She said in addition to population, the state currently recorded a multidimensional poverty index of 88%, with a higher value of 89% for females.

She explained that 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.

To ensure this, she said 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.

She highlighted the crises for Human Resource for Health (HRH) due to loss of staff from attrition, the notorious JAPA SYNDROME and internal shifts to private and tertiary healthcare levels in the country.