By Stella Kabruk
The Kaduna State Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the Society for Family Health (SFH), held a IntergratE Project State Steering Committee meeting to review the progress of project implementation, share experiences, and suggested a way forward.
In a opening remarks, the Commissioner for Health, Hajiya Umma Ahmed, welcome the stakeholders and thanked them for the support they are getting on issues around counterfeit drugs,expand access to family planning services.
Represented by Dr. Sunday Joseph, Director of Health Planning, Research, and Statistics, urged for good delibrations on ways forward to strengthening healthcare service delivery across the state.
He commended the Society for Family Health and development partners for their unwavering support in improving the health sector.
In a presentation during the session, Mr. Muhammad Ibrahim the project lead presented key milestones achieved under the IntergratE Project, alongside the challenges faced during implementation.
Ibrahim said access to family planning has been low in the country and even in Kaduna state and as an opportunity to expand the access, that is what gave birth to the integrateE project which is founded by Gates foundation.
He said the project is focused on working with parents and proprietor medicine vendors and community pharmacy to expand access to family planning.
According to him, through the integrateE project, they were able to pilot services that included injection, injectable contraceptives and implant contraceptives to community patent store and were able to demonstrate that providers can deliver the services and supported them by building their capacity to deliver this important services.
He listed poor documentation by some providers, providers attrition ( mainly CPS) stock out/ availability of some commodities, rising cost of commodities (implant and injectables) push back from referral facilities as challenges faced.
The team leader also listed the terms of reference of the committee to include: providing oversight and guidance for effective implementation of the project in the state.
To advise the project implementation on strategies based on the state context , to support institutionalisation and ensure sustainability of the project initiatives in the state.
He added to review findings from quarterly ISSV and monitoring activities and prefer solution to emerging challenges, provide feedback to the state and national steering committees on progress of intervention, challenges and way forward.
Also speaking, the Director of Pharmaceutical Services, Ministry of Health Pharm.Isah Abubakar -Balarabe said the impact of the committee is that family planning services has been extended to grassroots where they never believed it will reach,( community patent store)which means there will be wider reach now in the state.
He said the community patent store formed a diverse job in communities and by extension, most communities will be aware of family planning services because it saves lives.
" The family planning services saves lives by taking care of unwanted pregnancies, unwanted abortions and as such build on the future of the girl child.
" By the time you educate a girl child about family planning and she knows how to take care of herself,the society will be good for all of us.
He said over the years,there has been low availability high stock outreach of family planning consumables.
" In the past five years,the people that produce such were few in the whole world but with this intervention and other interventions from federal and state government and partners,we now have higher availability of the product.
The News Agency report that the meeting was attended by stakeholders, including representatives from the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN), Patent and Proprietary Medicine Vendors (PPMVs), and other key partners committed to improving healthcare access and quality in Kaduna State.
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
No comments:
Post a Comment