NPHCDA mulls robust framework for primary healthcare delivery

The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) is planning to come up with a clear strategy and implementation framework for primary healthcare delivery in the country.

Executive Director, NPHCDA, Faisal Shuaib, who stated this at a special retreat on strategy for immunisation priorities and public health care (PHC) system strengthening (2019-2020) in Abuja, said there had been an ambitious plan to sustain immunisation in Nigeria over the last 10 years and that the Buhari administration would leave no stone unturned in turning around the fortune of the primary health services.

He said: “We have worked and we are beginning to see minimal results. We are trying to establish primary healthcare where Nigerians will go and be treated with dignity and respect. What we are doing at this retreat is to really understand how we are going to take the next 10 years forward in entrenching full immunisation of our children.

“Today, we will be talking about how to hold everybody responsible starting from the ministry of health, myself the executive director all the way to the primary health care provider accountable to deliver primary health care that matches our aspirations as Nigerians.

“A board has been set up for local vaccine production by May and Baker, and the target that has been given by the minister of health is that in the next three years, we should be producing some vaccines, and this would stem from what we already have. You know there was a time in the sixties when Nigeria was producing the yellow fever vaccine, we believe that we can turn back the hands of clock and ensure that we begin to manufacture our vaccines, not only for Nigeria, but also for the whole of West Africa. This government is committed to ensure that Nigeria produces the vaccine that we need locally.”

Meanwhile, Managing Director of GAVI, Hind Khatib, who spoke on behalf of health support partners, disclosed that the decision of the GAVI board to extend its support towards routine immunisation in Nigeria was not an easy one as other countries have lost out. “You are bound to a duty to make sure these investments are utilised effectively. We want to make sure you are working with us at the same speed and efficiency so that our partnership can continue,” she said.