The 2019 Nigeria Goalkeeper, Mr. Michael Tunrwait and coalition of health advocates under the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health at Scale, PACFaH@Scale project, have called on governments at federal and state levels to expand universal health coverage using Primary Healthcare Under One Roof policies.
DAILY NIGERIAN reports that the PACFaH@Scale project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, BMGF, focuses on tackling healthcare delivery challenges in the country.
The coalition made the urge in a communique issued after the review of the 2019 Goalkeeper Report of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, BMGF, on Wednesday in Abuja.
They stated that as Nigerian government prepared to submit the 2020 Annual Budget, there was a need for the strengthening of healthcare delivery through the mechanism of Universal Health Coverage, UHC, within the framework of Primary Healthcare Under One Roof, PHCUOR, policy.
According to them, UHC and PHCUOR are complementary policies which could transform healthcare delivery in the country, if adopted in full and budgeted for in the 2020 health budgets at national and state levels.
The health advocates emphasized that the government at all levels needed to provide adequate and sustainable funding for universal health coverage within the framework of the PHCUOR policy.
“Strengthen UHC and PHCUOR platforms and assessment mechanisms with full civil society participation including groups representing women, youth and traditional and faith leaders,” the group said.
“The government must provide high levels of technical and management support to State Primary Health Care Boards, SPHCBs, to roll out and implement key pillars of the PHCUOR policy,” the group stressed.
According to them, the government must ensure in the administration of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, by “domesticating, disseminating and facilitating vibrant community-led conversations around new and soon-to-be-launched government policies with implications for UHC and PHCUOR.”
The group also noted that “increased technical compliance and efficient processes within national and state government MDAs will ensure result-based allocation and timely releases of appropriated funds to support UHC service delivery within a strengthen PHC system.”
The group, therefore, believed that these recommendations “are cost effective, implementable and well within the capacity of Nigeria’s health decisionmakers.”
