Kaduna State Maternal Accountability Mechanism (KADMAM), a Civil Society Organization(CSO), on Wednesday, called for synergy among agencies and departments under the state Ministry of Health for the success of the state Contributory Health Scheme.
Malam Mustapha Jumare, Co-Chairman of KADMAM, made the call during an interactive session with management of Kaduna State Contributory Health Management Authority (KADCHMA) and Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the meeting was organised in Kaduna to work out ways of increasing enrollment of residents into the Contributory Scheme, which was established by the state government in 2018.
Jumare observed that lack of synergy amongst all health MDAs was responsible for the poor enrollment by the residents, especially the informal sector.
During the session, KADCHMA had announced that it had so far enrolled 1,739 for the informal sector and 373,705 for formal sector, since it was established in 2018.
Jumare however noted that the figure was too low for a state with an estimated population of over nine million, and therefore called for collaborative effort.
According to him, the informal sector can be convinced to key into the scheme only when there is visible quality service delivery from all relevant agencies and departments of the ministry.
He called on the State government to improve on health infrastructure, drugs supply and other basic services that would attract the enrollees, especially from the informal sector.
“The issue of synergy is a very big issue that needs to be addressed immediately.
“We also need to hold a strategic roundtable discussion with the relevant MDAs to deliberate widely in terms of the demands and services being provided in those facilities, so that we can capture everybody well,” Jumare said.
The State Team Lead of PERL, Abel Adejor, said both the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and KADCHMA, needed to work together in getting citizens involved in the scheme.
He said the essence of the meeting was to develop strategies to improve informal sector enrolment into the scheme, identify gaps and also develop Work Plan for the enrolment drive into the Scheme. (NAN)
