Dr Simon Istifanus, Director of Planning, Research, and Statistics at the Nasarawa State Health Insurance Agency, has called on stakeholders to collectively take action to support the agency to improve healthcare service delivery in the state.
He emphasised that all hands must be on deck to expand and enhance healthcare service delivery at the Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) to bring health services closer to the people.
Dr Istifanus made the call at an event commemorating the 2023 ‘Universal Health Coverage Day’ in Lafia.
The theme of the 2023 Universal Health Coverage Day is ‘Health for All, Time for Action.’
He added that more than 70 per cent of health challenges facing the people could be addressed if PHCs were performing optimally.
“Most of the health challenges facing the people are those that PHCs should handle.
“It is because most of the primary facilities are not performing optimally that the cases are being taken to secondary and tertiary health facilities,” he added.
In his speech, the agency’s Executive Secretary (ES), Dr. Yahaya Bawa-Ubam, threatened to delist any medical facility found wanting in quality health service delivery.
He stated that any facility found wanting would be delisted and transferred to the nearest facility to enable them to continue accessing healthcare.
The Executive Secretary was represented at the program by Pharm. Maikudu Kaki, Director, Medical Services, Standard, and Quality Control of the agency.
He called on healthcare providers to be professional in their conduct and provide enrollees with the desired services to increase the people’s confidence in the scheme.
He mentioned that the agency has received many complaints from enrollees about bad service by some medical facilities, and they are taking steps to address them.
He also advised enrollees to change any service provider that fails to satisfy them, as it is within their rights to do so.
The ES also said that the agency has concluded plans to ensure that all state and local government civil servants enroll in the scheme.
“All the staff of the tertiary institutions, judiciary, and house of assembly, including students of the tertiary institutions, will be made to enrol in the next few months.
“The law establishing the agency has made it mandatory for all civil servants in the state to enrol in the scheme, and we will enforce that to achieve universal health coverage,” he added.
Bawa-Ubam further explained that the agency had set a target to register 500,000 persons into the scheme by 2027.
“To achieve this, we must explore all avenues to create robust awareness and simplify registration for everybody.
“We will create a platform where people can enrol in the comfort of their homes and offices once they have Android phones and access the internet,” he added.
He added that over 237,000 persons are currently enrolled in the scheme and are benefiting from quality out-of-pocket healthcare services.
He also mentioned that the beneficiaries were registered under different packages such as public sector, informal sector, vulnerable, and students.
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