By Maureen Nwine
The Edo State Government through the Ministry of Health in collaboration with PharmAccess Foundation and health care providers in the State has held a 2-day Health Care Standards Validation workshop aimed at developing standards and regulations for the health sector in the State.
Addressing the stakeholders during the workshop, the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Obehi Akoria, said the workshop is a culmination of several months of background work that had been ongoing as an initiative of the State governor to better regulate the healthcare space.
To achieve this initiative, she said it was of paramount importance to gather prime leaders in the health sector across all levels in the State which are the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary levels of health care as well as public and private sector health care providers together as it became glaring that things ought to be done differently in order to achieve different and positive results.
Speaking further, the Commissioner said: “haven looked through the laws, processes and health care landscape, data and health care outcomes, the State government came to the realization that it ought to do things differently to achieve the kind of health care services and outcomes that the Governor of the State as well as residents desire.
“In so doing, it was important for the stakeholders to look at the standards which had been developed in collaboration with PharmAccess Foundation’’.
The standards, according to Prof. Akoria, covers pharmaceutical services, medical services, optometry services, mortuary and embalmment services as well as nursing services amongst others.
The commissioner added that “after the standards validation workshop during which the minimum practice infrastructural process and outcome standards for Edo State would have been agreed upon, a 3-month period would be given by the ministry of health to enable the practitioners put processes in place to identify the gaps between the standards that have been agreed upon and what their practices currently are.
“It is also expected that systems would be put in place within these three months to close those gaps. It is not just about private sector regulation but also about the public sector regulation.’’
In a presentation, the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Dr. Stanley Ehiarimwian, highlighted the goals of the ministry of health through the directorate of regulation and monitoring in the standards regularization to include; ensuring that only qualified health personnel operate in the State, providing the best of care to clients within acceptable standards enshrined in the relevant laws and guidelines.
Dr. Ehiarimwian assured that with the new paradigm, there would be enforcement of standards with stiff penalties against offenders, there would be reliable data on the number and status of various healthcare facilities, and there would also be a sustained reform effort of the health sector with proper collaboration among agencies under the ministry of health.
In her summation, Program Director for Safecare, PharmAccess Foundation, Dr. Ibironke Dada, said that at the end of the standards validation workshop, Edo State would have regulatory standards for every health care provider within the State as it is one of the major steps in improving regulation of health care services in the State.
Highpoints of the workshop were the breakout sessions where the healthcare providers, according to their services, took a critical look at the set standards with a view to amending and making recommendations for global best practice.
