The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) supported program in Nigeria; Strengthening Health Outcomes Through Private Sectors (ShOPS) said it has improve the quality and sustainability of family planning and maternal and child health services in Nigeria through the private sector participation.
The Chief of party, SHOPS Nigeria, Mrs Ayodele Iroko, who disclosed this in Benin, Edo state, said with the training of over 140 health providers and reach out or 361 public health facilities in the Edo state alone and other five states, it has been able to strengthen the capacity and retraining of private health providers.
According to Ayodele, “The project conducted a large-scale census of private sector clinics, hospital, medical centers, and nursing homes across six states in Nigeria: Abia, Benue, Edo, Kaduna, Lagos and Nassarawa”.
Mrs Iroko who spoke at a press briefing preluding a workshop held at the Best Western hotel, Benin city, yesterday, disclosed that USAID braced the storm of the private health sector in 2007 when they started looking at the different avenue on growing the capacity in the private sector to improve health outcome in the country.
She said, “Following the lesson learnt in 2009, the project was streamlined, expanded for better achievements which it then give back to SHOPS”, adding that, ” It could not have been anything worth talking about but the professional appreciation of the Doctors, nurses and community pharmacists who were ready to embrace the desires for linkages, integration and partnerships.”
She restated further that SHOPS projects provides training and other interventions in Nigeria aimed at improving the quality of family planning services noting that,” The primary purposes for the collection of data on the number of facilities, staffing, infrastructure, and business practices of private health facilities is to help inform the program interventions and to allow for a baseline measure for a future impact evaluation of the intervention.”
She said SHOPs was able to provide training and other initiatives for 134 hospital/medical centers, 136 community pharmacies, 76 clinics and 174 nursing homes across Edo state in the last three years.
Speaking on the topic; Strengthening health outcomes through the private sector—the challenges—the gains—the future, Mrs Iroko, urged the beneficiaries and participants to help train and educate others in their catchment areas in other to invest into the future of unborn Nigerians.
Also speaking, Dr. Tunde Ayodele, the national vice chairman, Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners in Nigeria (AGPMPN) said the project has improved access to lifesaving family planning, reproductive health and maternal and child health services in the state.
He said the SHOPS project engaged private providers and trained them on various long acting methods of contraception, to expand the range of services offered to its clients which has helped increase appreciation and quality of services of private hospitals in the state.
Credit: leadership.ng