FG to unveil first-ever state of health report

The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Muhammad Pate, announced on Thursday that the ministry is set to launch the first-ever state of health report in the country.

Pate, who disclosed this at a press briefing in Abuja, noted that the report will provide a comprehensive analysis of the status of the nation’s healthcare system and outline the way forward for the nation’s healthcare sector.

He said the forthcoming Nigeria Health Sector-Wide Joint Annual Review in November will serve as the foundation for the report.

“The Joint Annual Review is one landmark conference of its kind, where we are collectively coming together to review the results, and we have been able to demonstrate a much larger journey that is ahead of us, of transforming Nigeria’s health care system. We have had multiple engagements with state governments, commissioners of health, and development partners through various working groups, which have looked at the data, and we have used instruments such as the People’s Perceptions Survey.

“Last year, when we set the agenda, we had a People’s Voices Survey that was conducted, interviewing almost 2,500 Nigerians, to get their perception because, if you recall, the first pillar of the agenda is to improve governance and to respond to the needs of Nigerians, which is the President’s Health Sector Renewal Initiative. This year, we have a Perception Survey, which is conducted across 36 states, interviewing more than 2,600 Nigerians as a sample to get a sense of their perception, on our way to continually assess how Nigerians feel about their health system and the impact of what we are trying to do, and that will be reviewed next week at the JAR. We also have data because it’s important to track it objectively.

“We have now gotten the result of 23 Demographic and Health Surveys, which is like a baseline, which has now been organised systematically across different states, by different indicators, to tell what has been the trend, so that in two years’ time, we can reliably say how much we have achieved, and what we have not achieved and to track our progress.”

The minister stated that the report would also help address maternal and child healthcare concerns and reproductive health, among others.

“There are particular local governments, about 172 of them, which account for more than half of maternal mortality. So, how do we target them now that we have identified them? We will review it collectively, using the best interventions that we can deploy. We need to look at where to go from here in terms of our operational plan that has been developed by the states.

“Our teams are working very hard. Our development partners, our partners at the state government, local governments, of course, the citizen voices are included. There will be the first state of health report, which will be the first time there will be a state of health report. On an annual basis, there will now be a report back to Nigerians because all of this is to serve Nigerians, and we will report back to His Excellency, Mr President, members of the National Assembly, and report to the National Council on Health, which is the epic health policy-making body in our history of federalism, and then to make this public,” he added.

Pate also disclosed that President Bola Tinubu had approved the release of N10bn for the Medical Relief Programme for the provision of vital drugs to those in need, especially those affected by flood.

“The sum of N5bn was released to the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency respectively,” he said.

The National Coordinator of the Sector-Wide approach, Dr Muntaqa Sadiq, highlighted that this year’s JAR will establish a baseline for future targets and priorities, ensuring that government resources are deployed efficiently for maximum impact.

The engagements, according to him, aim to strengthen collaboration among state and federal entities to ensure adherence to the compact signed by the Nigeria Health Sector Investment Renewal Initiative of Government.