A non-governmental organisation on Maternal Newborn and Child Health (MNCH) has urged the Kaduna State Government to accelerate efforts for the passage of contributory health insurance bill.
This is to bring healthcare delivery closer and accessible to the people.
The NGO gave the advice in a document made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Kaduna.
It said that accelerating the passage of contributory health insurance bill would reduce pocket spending in accessing healthcare.
It also called for the modification of family planning messages to stress the importance of child spacing rather than limiting the number of children.
“There should be provision of the basic equipment and consumables in health facilities to attract more clients and PHCs should be strengthened to cater for the MNCH needs of the state.’’
The organisation underscored the need ensure equitable distribution of more functional community health extension workers to disseminate health programmes, teach and encourage mothers in various health practices and lifestyle modifications.
Besides, it called for incentives to healthcare workers deployed to rural and hard to reach areas of the state.
The NGO also appealed for sustained enlightenment programmes on the radio and television on the importance of immunisation and antenatal care in health institutions that can guarantee contact with skilled providers.
It further advised the state fgovernment on the need to improve in health services as it reveals some stagnation that need to be addressed.
“The performance of the state government though better in some domain compared to the National and North Western zonal performance was not impressive compared to what was obtained in 2013 NDHS result and figure posted by the state in 2014 and2016.
“Although Kaduna State has been performing better than most states in the zone, this assessment revealed some stagnation that would need to be addressed so that some improvement can be seen and recorded in subsequent assessment,’’ the NGO said.