Experts tasks frontline health workers on effective facility, financial management

Experts have advised frontline health workers to harness effective facility and financial management principles and tools to ensure quality service delivery at health facilities.

They gave the advice yesterday in Abuja during the FCT-level training-of-trainers workshop on the facility and financial management, organized by the FCT Primary Health Care Board (FCT PHCB) in collaboration with the USAID Integrated Health Project (IHP).

Dr Gafar Alawode of the Development Governance International Consult (DGI Consult) said optimal utilization of health resources such as manpower, drugs, consumables, finance, and monitoring and supervision were critical for the delivery of effective and efficient services at the primary healthcare level.

He said, “when you talk about facility management, it is not only the building but also commodities, even managing finances. So the ability to manage the overall facility and having the organogram well-structured to efficiently manage resources, is very important.”

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He said frontline health workers were trained on how to use the PHC facility and financial and management training manual and toolkit developed by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) with the support of IHP, and would cascade it to the PHC officers-in-charge, ward development committee members and facility accountants in the FCT’s six area councils.

He said 25 participants were trained for the  FCT training of trainers programme and they would train 200 PHC officers in charge.

Moses Ibrahim Peter, Head of Essential Medicines at the FCT Primary Healthcare Board, said improvement in terms of management of facilities and resources is expected across the FCT area councils after the training programme.

He said the challenges of human resources for health have been there but that the government was trying its best to address it. “At the PHC level we are improvising, and that is why the training is very important,” he said.