Nahimah Ajikanle Nurudeen
The Federal Government has announced its partnership with Plan International to create a unified data collection for the nation’s health system.
To achieve this goal, the Federal Ministry of Health in partnership with Plan International Nigeria, an international non-Governmental Organisation on Monday began a two-day workshop on Strengthening Community Health Management Information System (CHMIS) in Nigeria.
Mr Emmanuel Abatta who represented the federal ministry of health at the meeting told newsmen in Benin that Data Managers from the 17 states in the Southern part of the country were participating in the meeting.
Abatta said the meeting seeks to reactivate the health data governance structure for more effective management of the health information system in Nigeria.
He said the Health Data Consultative Committee (HDCC) was a prescription of the National Health Information System (NHIS) policy of 2014.
”In the light of the recent efforts by the Planning, Research and Statistics department of the federal ministry of health to strengthen the health data management information system, ‘it has become expedient to take action targeted at reactivating and strengthening the HDCC at both the federal and state levels to ensure momentum of present efforts,” Abatta said.
He expressed “the Honourable Minister of Health’s gratitude to Plan International Nigeria for their immense contributions to the development of health data management in Nigeria”
Also speaking, Mr Orji Ogbureke, the Head of Programme and Business Development, Plan International Nigeria who represented the Country Director of the organisation, Dr Hussaini Abdu said the meeting was informed by the fact that states were using different tools and forms to collect community data.
Ogbureke said: “these data were usually localised in offices and not available in a central location such as Data Health Information System platform which captures mostly facility level data”.
He said “this meant that the central level decision making is not adequately informed by the true health status at all levels of government”, noting that the implementation of the National Health Information System would ensure that women, adolescent girls and children in the communities were captured.
According to him, ”as a step to improving our national health care system.”
This is especially important as the country plans to start the implementation of new National Health Strategic Development Plan.
