Performance-Based Financing in hospitals improves staff productivity ―Commissioner opines

IT has been asserted that the ‘Performance Based Financing Scheme’ introduced in health facilities in Bauchi state which pays staff’s incentives based on their services has improved health workers’ productivity significantly.

The assertion was made by the Bauchi State Commissioner of Health, Dr Zuwaira Ibrahim Hassan,  while delivering a paper entitled ‘Performance Based Financing : A tool for Achieving Universal Health Coverage’ delivered at a lecture organized by the Clinical Activities Coordinating Committee (CACC) of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital (ATBUTH) Bauchi to its staff held on Thursday.

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The Commissioner explained that the scheme which is being practised worldwide was implemented in the state in June 2017 adding that within the short time of the implementation, it has improved the quantity and quality services provided especially at Primary Health Centres as more staff now avail themselves to patients.

“Health personnel appreciates Performance Based Financing because it increases staff remuneration and it is a more just system because people earn more when they work more. Government finds it attractive since it helps them to improve social services, enhance efficiency and boost the health status of the population “, she opined.

Zuwaira Hassan added that “Performance-Based Financing expands coverage of health services for the general population and especially for the poorest and improves access to good quality health services”.

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Earlier, the Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Mohammed Alkali, represented by the Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC), Dr Sa’id Abubakar Kaddas, said that the purpose of organizing the lecture was to educate staff drawn from various departments and units on burning issues adding that such an event holds on a regular basis in the institution.

He also stated that the main mandate of the Teaching Hospitals are training, service delivery and research assuring that the pieces of information disseminated by the staff of the different units during the interaction session would be utilized judiciously by the management for the benefit of the facility and the general public in the state.