Buni’s revolution and excellence awards in Yobe healthcare delivery, by Mamman Mohammed
Although there was no formal declaration of a state of emergency in the Yobe state health sector, the transformation recorded in the last four years has empirically shown that the sector is on the priority list of the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led administration.
The drive and success stories in making healthcare delivery accessible and affordable to the people have been unprecedented and attracting local and international attention with accolades and prizes to support the Yobe state government to further actualize its vision in healthcare delivery and transformation.
When Governor Buni assumed leadership of the state in 2019, he pledged to establish one functional Primary Healthcare Center in each of the 178 political wards across the state. This is to bring functional and efficient health services much closer to the people and to save them from traveling far distances in search of medical services. It also reduced the pressure on Secondary health institutions who before now provided both primary and secondary healthcare services to the people in the state.
At the end of his first four-year tenure, 139 out of the 178 proposed Primary Healthcare Centers had been completed, equipped, commissioned, and put to use. Every primary healthcare center is equipped with a stocked pharmacy, laboratory, labour room, male and female wards for admission of patients, and accommodation for the medical personnel posted to these facilities to ensure 24/7 services to the communities.
The regime upgraded four General Hospitals to specialist hospitals and eight Primary Healthcare Centers to General Hospitals while the Yobe State University Teaching Hospital was provided with state-of-the-art equipment to provide advanced medical services to the people. It also introduced electronic medical data and information files for patients which can be shared for advanced diagnosis among specialists and consultants across the World without necessarily traveling out of the hospital.
There is no doubt that the establishment of the State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency which provides resources to guarantee the sustainability of adequate medical services to the people is another major outstanding and unprecedented development in the sector.
Dr. Babagana Tijjani, Executive Secretary of the Yobe State Contributory Health Management Agency, said over 500,000 persons in both the formal and non-formal sectors now enjoy services of the state Contributory Health agency by off-setting their medical expenses.
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According to Babagana, Yobe state emerged as the BEST performing state in Northern Nigeria with a 100 percent implementation rate of the Contributory Health scheme and the best in the Northeast sub-region to win a N30 Million prize from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Yobe State contributory healthcare Management Agency achieved 100% in the health insurance implementation status report across the country.
The scorecard assessed four significant parameters that includes legislation of mandatory contributory scheme, appropriated and released equity fund for vulnerable group, and government/employee contribution for formal sector Programme.
In the all the four indicators, Yobe State significantly attained 100% performance, making the state among the top most performing states report issued by National Health Insurance Authority through the Nigerian Governors Forum Secretariat.
This remarkable success is attributed to the great commitment and leadership of His Excellency the Executive Governor of Yobe State Hon Mai Mala Buni CON in terms of providing policy direction and financial commitment towards the state determination to achieve Universal Health Coverage and increase health care access especially to the poor and vulnerable
Babagana explained that the agency is currently running five programmes which include the Formal sector with 201,655 beneficiaries covering 96% of its target.
“We also have the Buni Equity Programme covering 28,871 beneficiaries, and 43,997 beneficiaries for the Basic Healthcare provision fund program while the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has 2,500 beneficiaries.
Impressed by the performance, Governor Buni assured more support to the State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency, to accommodate more vulnerable persons into the scheme.“Government would sustain the existing programmes and initiate new ones to ensure accessible, affordable, efficient and productive health care delivery in the state,” Buni said.
The exemplary performance by the state government also attracted UNICEF to approve N229 Million to enroll an additional 7000 vulnerable persons to complement the Buni equity programme. Similarly, UNICEF is to construct a standard ICT Centre for the Agency to facilitate efficiency and productivity in service delivery.
In the same vein, Yobe State emerged as the best-performing State in the Programme Assessment for Performance Management and Action, Routine Immunization Lots Quality Assurance (PAPA RI LQAS) sampling conducted by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA). The PAPA RI LQAS is used to measure the performance of Routine Immunization (RI) programming in all the 36 states in the country. Yobe emerged as the best State in the survey followed by Nassarawa and Lagos States in the second and third positions respectively.
The Executive Secretary, of Yobe State Primary Health Care Board, Dr. Babagana Kundi Machina, said Governor Buni’s investments in primary health care and the health sector generally, have been yielding the desired results as more residents of Yobe State now have access to qualitative and affordable health services.
The establishment of the Medical Consumables Management Agency by the Yobe state government has ensured the availability of drugs and consumables in all state-owned medical institutions across the state, bringing to an end the out-of-stock syndrome usually associated with government hospitals.
Similarly, the establishment of theYobe State Emergency Medical Ambulance Services Agency, to provide emergency medical services to victims of road traffic and domestic accidents among others has promoted emergency first aid medical attention to the people of Yobe state.
In an effort to ensure the standard and quality of medical services provided in both government and private health institutions in the state are not compromised, the Buni administration established the Yobe State Health Facilities Inspection and Monitoring Agency to monitor and ensure that the institutions provide standard services to patients.
As a measure to boost manpower in the health institutions, the state government recruited many Doctors, pharmacists, and more than 700 graduates of the state-owned Shehu Sule College of Nursing and Midwifery, and the College of Health Technology, Nguru. This has no doubt provided the needed personnel to run the newly established Primary Health Centers, General Hospitals, and Teaching Hospital.
Remarkably, Yobe State has also emerged as the third most improved state in the country in Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn, Child, and Adolescent Health plus Nutrition (RMNCAH+N) services according to a report by NPHCDA. Yobe State recorded significant improvements in Antenatal Care attendance and Skilled Birth Attendance.
It could be recalled that within the last 12 months alone, Yobe State has received the award for the Most Improved State in Nigeria in Routine Immunization (awarded by NPHCDA) and also emerged as the best State in Nigeria in terms of implementation of the Primary Health Care Under One Roof Scorecard 5 assessment with a total score of 97%.
It is therefore not surprising that when former President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR during a state visit to Yobe State in January this year, commissioned Nigeria’s largest Maternity and Child Healthcare complex at the Yobe State University Teaching Hospital, commended Governor Mai Mala Buni for the foresight in establishing the complex to combat the menace of maternal and infant mortality, saying, this project can serve the entire states in the North-east. “Congratulations,” Buhari said.
For Governor Buni, it is still a work in progress as he has during his inauguration for a second of office, assured that the health sector would continue to receive more government attention to make medical services most accessible and affordable to the people of the state, and to Yobe state a destination of medical tourism in Nigeria.
Mamman Mohammed is the DG, Press and Media Affairs to Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State
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