Health officials in Borno and other states of the federation on Wednesday met in Abuja, to brainstorm and develop a functional operational guideline for the implementation of adequate health care delivery in Borno state.
Speaking at the occassion, the Executive Secretary of Borno State Contributory Health Care Management Agency (BOSCHMA), Dr. Saleh Abba Kaza said the protracted activities of the Boko Haram insurgents have done severe damage to the health care system in the state.
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He said a lot of health facilities have been vandalised and others set ablaze by the insurgents, making it difficult for the citizens to access adequate health care services in the state.
He explained that the meeting would come up with a working document to serve as implementation tool to achieve the State Development Goal (SDG) on healthcare.
Dr Kaza added that the operational guideline would help the state government in implementing the 10 years Borno State Strategic Transformation Agenda and the 25 years State Development Plan as well as ensure financial risk protection of citizens.
“The protracted insurgency in the Northeast has increased the proportion of vulnerable people, a significant proportion of the population including IDPs and host communities rely on state government and humanitarian support to access healthcare, thereby over-stretching the funding.
“More than 90% of the population of Borno access healthcare throughout of pocket healthcare financing which is most often catastrophic. More than 1.3 million Nigerians are pushed into poverty due to out-of-pocket health care expenditures,” he said.
Stakeholders at the meeting were the representatives of UNICEF, Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), NHIS, Director of Laboratory Sciences Borno Hospitals Management Board, Chairman Borno State Medical Association, and Executive Secretaries of Contributory Health Care Management Agencies of various states of the federation among others.
