By Ahmed Ahmed
A cluster of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) Health System Strengthening Cluster (HSSC) has called on the Bauchi state government to graciously release funds budgeted for Integrated Supportive Supervision (ISS) in the 2024 budget of the state.
Mr Nkem Ogbonna, the Executive Director,
Better Life Restoration Initiative, made the plea in an interactive session with newsmen in Bauchi on Thursday on behalf of the group.
He said that the Integrated Supportive Supervision is an intervention that facilitates quality improvement by ensuring adequate oversight as well as skills and knowledge transfer to health care service providers.
According to him, The cluster comprises six civil society organizations on the Scale project, a USAID-funded 5-year project from Oct. 2020 to Oct. 2025, implemented by Palladium in collaboration with Nigeria Resource Partners (RPs).
He added that ISS has been accepted, tested and proven to enhance the performance and effectiveness of health care workers.
“The Health System Strengthening Cluster is implementing a project known as ‘Improved Quality Healthcare Service Delivery through Integrated Supportive Supervision’.
He said the group also called for the expansion of the Integrated Supportive Supervision Technical Working Group (ISS-TWG) to include other critical stakeholders like the Ward Development Committee and the Private Sector.
He highlighted the benefits ofISS as strengthening of the health care system, enhancement of quality service delivery, Improvement of performances and encouragement of open and two-way communications.
He however, lamented that the current structure and placement of ISS was suboptimal, thereby limiting its capacity to effectively engage through a sector-wide approach for effective implementation.
“Domestic financing support for ISS is inadequate and there is high dependency on donor funding. Over the years, many health programs have been heavily funded by donors supporting ISS activities.
“Although donor support is important, this is mostly unsustainable and has debilitating effects on ISS continuity.
“High Cost of fuel and transportation is negatively impacting ISS activities in all the target States,” he said
Ogbonna added that to ensure quality healthcare service delivery, facilitate sustainable knowledge transfer and regular mentorship of healthcare service providers, he further called for the creation of a budget line for ISS activities in the 2025 budget of the state.
According to him, if all PHCs in Bauchi State were adequately supervised, it would guarantee quality Healthcare service delivery in the State, saying “the time to act is now”