The Director General of the Edo Health Insurance Scheme (EdoHIS), Mrs Augusta Ikpea-Enaholo, has called for the monitoring of Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) to improve access to the state’s health insurance scheme.
Ikpea-Enaholo made the call during a three-day meeting with medical health workers under the Ministry of Health (MOH) in the state’s three senatorial districts.
She emphasised Governor Monday Okpebholo’s commitment to the well-being of Edo residents and plans to revive PHCs abandoned by the previous administration.
Ikpea-Enaholo said the meeting was convened to address the challenges faced by medical officers and the health insurance scheme in the PHCs.
She urged them to ensure the effective implementation of health policies, supervise health personnel, monitor service delivery, and drive improvements in health outcomes in alignment with state and national health policies.
The medical officers voiced concerns about inadequate manpower, leaking roofs, and the negative attitude of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital toward EdoHIS enrollees.
These issues, according to the officers, discourage patients from utilising the scheme, and make it crucial to resolve these challenges promptly.
In response to the concerns raised, Ikpea-Enaholo directed the implementation of a regular monitoring and evaluation system to assess the performance of PHCs and the effectiveness of the EdoHIS.
She also promised to ensure that all challenges raised were sorted out to strengthen the functionality and effectiveness of all the PHCs and the EdoHIS.
Ikpea-Enaholo, however, called on the medical officers to foster collaboration with traditional, religious, and community leaders to improve health-seeking behaviours
The Director General further explained that the medical officers would henceforth be evaluated based on performance indicators like timely approval of the business plan and the number of supervisory visits conducted, as well as evaluated based on the percentage of PHCs achieving a least 15 per cent service utilisation and implementation of facility improvement plan.
