Self-Care to Help Nigeria Achieve UHC – Experts.
By Murtala Muhammad
A Consortium of Non-Governmental Organisations, Task Force on Self-Care has described the National Self-Care Policy as a roadmap towards achieving Universal Health Coverage.
The policy when fully implemented would provide the opportunity to people in both urban and hard to reach communities take care of their health using a nationally approved guideline.
The National Coordinator of White Ribbon Alliance, Mrs. Christiana Asala gave the indication at an Orientation and Data Quality Assessment on National Self-Care and Self-injection guideline organised for Bauchi State Family Health Stakeholders, held in Bauchi.
Mrs. Christiana Asala who said there was a huge gap in terms of achieving Universal Health Coverage in the country noted that the Self-Care policy would go a long way towards addressing the problem.
She explained that the Consortium was working with the state and community stakeholders to take Self-Care message to people at the grassroot level who According to her were mostly affected by poor healthcare services being rendered in healthcare facilities.
Mrs. Asala added that Self-Care would also give individuals especially women the opportunity to make informed decision concerning their reproductive health.
In a remark, the Director Family Health of the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Salma Ibrahim Anas said the rational behind the development of the National Self-Care guideline was to contribute to ongoing effort aimed at achieving better healthcare outcomes.
Represented by an Assistant Director in the ministry, Mr. Alex Ugochukwu, Dr. Salma Anas charged the participants to be ready to support individuals in various communities to utilize the provisions of the document to address their sexual and Reproductive health needs.
The overseeing Commissioner in the state ministry of health, Dr Dayyabu Mohammed Hassan, said the state would carefully study the document and make corrections where necessary for subsequent adoption and implementation.
The Programme Officer, Access Collaborative Project of John Snow Incorporated, Mr. Olajumi Latunji assured the Organisation’s support to ensure smooth implementation of Self-Care guideline in the state to improve and strengthen the healthcare systems.
The orientation was organized by the Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with John Snow Incorporated, WHO, White Ribbon Alliance, Pathfinder International, Association for Reproductive and Family Health among other partners.
