8th April, 2019
Nasarawa State Government has established Social Health Insurance Agency (SHIA) aimed at providing quality and affordable health services to the people, Dr Roseline Kela, the state’s Commissioner for Health, said.
Kela made this known on Monday in Lafia at an event to mark the 2019 World Health Day.
Celebrated annually on April 7, the World Health Day from its inception at the First Health Assembly in 1948 and since taking effect in 1950, aimed to create awareness on specific health theme to highlight priority areas of concern for the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The Nasarawa commissioner said that the essence of the SHIA was to key into the National Basic Health Care Provision Fund.
According to her, the state government also appointed Dr Gaza Gomna as Executive Secretary of the agency to fast track its operations.
She said “the executive secretary has been given a matching order to enlist every resident of the state to enjoy health care services.
“This is one of the sure way to ensure that every Nasarawa State resident gets quality and affordable health services wherever they desire in the state.”
She added that the objectives of the agency were in tandem with the theme of the 2019 World Health Day “Universal Health Coverage: Everyone, Everywhere.”
She pointed out that apart from the health insurance scheme, the state government took several measures to ensure that citizens, especially at the rural communities, access affordable quality health care services.
“For instance, Nasarawa State pioneered the full transfer of Primary Healthcare (PHC) facilities under one roof to strengthen coordination of facilities located deep within the communities.
“This was deliberately intended to improve the lives of the citizenry and reduce the suffering of those in rural areas,” Kela said.
The commissioner also said that the state government piloted the Community Health Influncers, Promoters and Services (CHIPS) agent project to facilitate engagement of communities in health services provision.
She explained that under the programme, 580 CHIP agents and 116 community mobilisers were trained and engaged to
provide basic healthcare services to women and children at the various communities and to promptly refer others
who needed attention to the nearest health centre.
She maintained that implementation of the programme was being monitored as the state government hope to engage
about 2,000 CHIPS agents soon.