Stakeholders want family planning, others in info platforms
News & Trends •
by felicia imohimi11 when developed the strategic plan will be leveraged upon by development partners and donors in strengthening the regulatory capacity of pcn and ensure cps and ppmvs provide quality fp and other phc information and services1 the stakeholders made the call at the inaugural meeting for the development of pcn fp and other primary health care phc strategic plan in collaboration with the psn-pacfah@scale in abuja1 the stakeholders included the federal ministry of health fmoh pharmacists council of nigeria pcn national agency for food and drug administration and control nafdac and pharmaceutical society of nigeria psn-partnership for advocacy in child and family health @scale project pacfah@scale1 others are community pharmacists and ppmvs society for family healthintegrate project among others1 they identified such platforms to include the national health management information system nhmis and the national family planning dashboard noting that community pharmacies and patent medicines shops were solution to achieving universal health coverage1 giving an overview of the strategic plan dr edwin akpotor programme manager psn-pacfah@scale said the plan would itemise what the council intended doing in repositioning cps and ppmvs in providing extended services1 akpotor said the three years strategic plan which would commence from 2019 to 2021 was meant for fp service delivery adding that for nigeria to achieve universal health coverage uhc there was need to include private sector healthcare provision1 stakeholders in health sector have urged the federal government to include family planning fp and other primary healthcare services provided by community pharmacists cps and patent and proprietary medicines vendors ppmvs in information platforms1 he emphasised that with the current task shifting and task sharing tsts policy of the government more services would be given to cps and ppmvs1 akpotor said the federal government at the july 2017 london fp2020 summit made a commitment to expand the fp services that community-based health practitioners such as cps ppmvs among others can provide1 through this commitment the government believes the current fp unmet need can be bridged while increasing access to critical fp information and services especially in hard-to-reach environment and ultimately achieving the countrys modern contraceptive prevalence rate goal mcpr1 in supporting the government to achieve this commitment and others the psn-pacfah@scale project is supporting pcn to develop a strategic plan blue print on re-positioning and strengthening the fp and other phc services provided by cps and ppmvs1 through the plan the council needs to have a plan on how to operationalise the tsts monitor ensure supportive supervision of this group to provide accurate exact services they are met to do he said1 akpotor identified some of the task of the council to include demand creation and generation creating awareness ensuring that the practitioners provide the relevant information and services1 according to him such measures will enable them to give right information to their clients or make a referral to the appropriate quarters when the need arise1 according to the 2013 national demographic and health survey ndhs 60 per cent of nigerians patronise or obtain their services and other phc services from private sector which is the cps and ppmvs1