Kogi trains health workers on assessment, implementation of basic healthcare fund

The Kogi State Primary Health Care Development Agency (KSPHCDA), has trained health officials on quality assessment and implementation of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) in the state.

Speaking at the training centre on Thursday, in Lokoja, the Executive Director of KSPHCDA, Dr Abubakar Yakubu, said the training would ensure quality improvement and assessment tools, processes and protocols for the fund.

Yakubu said the State Government had already put in place necessary activities on BHCPF, saying the participants would go back to the point of service delivery, and assess the quality of services being rendered.

“The assessors at the state and local government levels will now give us feedback, so that we will know where to adjust and improve upon,” he said.

According to him, the agency is building the capacity of trainers who will support health facilities in the development of a business plan, based on findings from the quality-of-care assessment.

The executive director advised the participants to be; “very upright, and take the training very seriously, and go back to your areas and do the right thing”.

The Focal Person of BHCPF, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr Shamsudden Saad, said the training was to leverage upon the existence of the BHCPF.

According to him, the BHCPF is a Federal Government programme which is aimed at increasing fiscal space, particularly primary healthcare.

He said government was giving one per cent of its Consolidated Revenue to the Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs), to eliminate bureaucracy in delivering quality healthcare services to the citizens.

Saad stressed that the training would orient participants on BHCPF as an opportunity for the sustainability of the improved quality of care strategy.

Also speaking, Mr Eric Akoji, the Coordinator, Kogi State Health Partners’ Forum, described the BHCPF as a very good initiative of the Federal Government being supported by the state government.

Akoji expressed optimism that the training would build the capacity of the assessors that will ensure quality health service delivery to citizens of the state.

On his part, the State’s Desk Office of BHCPF, Dr Bola Kelvin-Jonah, said the participants were the state and local government quality assessors from the 21 local government areas of the state.

Kelvin-Jonah said the assessors would measure the quality of care the agency had so far given, to know if the state was on the right track.

He added that the training would help to utilise the particular tool that had been developed to go into the health facilities and do quality assessment.