KanSLAM, PERL host session on healthcare service delivery in Kano

The Kano State-Led Accountability Mechanism (KanSLAM), with support from the Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL) Wednesday organized an interactive session with the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) and Ward Development Committees (WDCs) focused on tracking healthcare service delivery in Kano state.

By Stephen Enoch

Funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), PERL is a public-sector accountability and governance programme which seeks to enhance partnerships between the government and its citizens to address governance issues and heighten service delivery.

While speaking at the interactive session, Mohammed Nura Yahaya, the BHCPF coordinator at the Kano State Primary Health Care Management Board, said the BHCPF was aimed at ensuring sustainable funding for healthcare so as to guarantee qualitative and equitable healthcare services towards achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in Nigeria.

To this end, Yahaya said Kano state had recorded significant progress since joining the BHCPF and subsequent release of its counterpart funding in 2020 adding that the state had also secured National Primary Health Care Development Agency’s approval to disburse funds to 381 eligible PHCs across the various Local Government Areas of the state.

Also speaking at the event, Dr Abdullahi Sa’ad, the deputy director for programmes at the Kano State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency (KSCHMA), said the agency’s major function was “ensuring timely payments of funds to healthcare facilities for service delivery as well as the tracking of disbursed funds to ensure they are spent for the intended purposes which is ultimately for the provision of healthcare services to the beneficiaries.”

Dr Saad said the beneficiaries of KSCHMA had the right to be treated with respect, dignity and privacy as well as being provided access to care at zero cost, for all covered services from accredited public and private healthcare providers.  The interactive session was aimed at enhancing accountability and strengthening healthcare services delivery at the grassroots, towards achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC).