HACEY monitors how govts implement maternal healthcare interventions

By Stephen Gbadamosi

A Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), HACEY Initiative, has said that it is engaging in monitoring various interventions in the health sector in the country.

According to a statement by the NGO, tagged: “Supportive Supervision to Understand Project Success and Gaps”, made available to journalists, this was part of its efforts in ensuring proper outcomes and goals, DailyTimes gathered.

“As part of milestones to ensure the continuous learning from project stakeholders towards achieving project outcomes and goal, a supportive supervision has been carried out to understand the progress recorded in the impact health project and the existing gaps that may prevent the achievement of the desired results.

“The Impact Health Project is an initiative designed and implemented by the HACEY Health Initiative, in partnership with IPRD Solutions, to improve the delivery of maternal health care services and reduce maternal mortality.

“In Oyo State, the project runs independently and provides support for the state government’s ‘Tomotiya’ Health Campaign, which promotes access to improved maternal health services and malaria prevention commodities for pregnant women in the state.

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“To achieve this goal, over 290 health workers from 95 primary health facilities across 17 local government areas within the state were engaged and trained on the use of mobile technology for data collection and maternal health service provision at the facility.

“Over 30,000 units of Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) kits and 10,000 Intermittent Preventive Therapy in pregnancy (IPTpSP) were also distributed across these implementing health facilities to facilitate early identification and prevention of malaria in pregnancy.

“The organisation through two of its teams of Research and Development Department, in May, visited the 17 local government areas which include Oluyole, Olorunsogo, Atisbo, Kajola, Iseyin, Ogbomoso South and North, Ibarapa East and Central, Oyo East, Atiba, Egbeda, Ona Ara, Akinyele, Ibadan North, Ibadan South-West and Ibadan North-East.

“The purpose of the supervision was to retrain the health workers and provide technical support on the use of the digital health system and at the same time engage them in a focus group discussion.

“Data from the process show that the app’s user rating is five in terms of design. More than two-thirds of the health workers that participated in the discussion believe that the app is easy to use on a day-to-day basis when compared to similar applications from other projects.

“However, challenges like poor internet services, and inadequate human resources at the primary health centres limits the usage of the system at the facilities.

“According to the health workers, the system has improved their antenatal care record-keeping process, and this is attributable to the detailed information that is required to be collected from each patient.

“Also, emphasis was laid on the reduction in the incidence of malaria-induced maternal death in the implementing facilities as a result of the provision of the preventive therapy provided by the Impact Health project.

“One key success story reported from the health workers is how the project has increased their capacity on the use of digital health technology and their work effectiveness.

“Though, a good number of the health workers at the primary healthcare level are not proficient in the use of advanced technology, they are confident that trainings provided through the Impact Health project will enable them to be better users of digital health platforms and also to integrate technology to improve health care delivery,” HACEY said.

According to the organisation, to ensure the achievement of the project goal by the targeted period, participants highlighted the need to extend the intervention to all other facilities in the state, as it is believed that that the intervention is required and in the right track for the achievement of Universal Health Care Coverage.