By Donald Ojebo
Delta State Government (DTSG) has assured its readiness to partner with donor agencies with a view to improve the health management information system in the state.
Commissioner for Health, Dr. Mordi Ononye, gave the assurance in Asaba recently during the workshop on field testing of Community Health Management Information System (CHMIS) tools, organised by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with Federal Ministry of Health with the sponsorship from UNICEF.
The commissioner, represented by the Director of Public Health, Dr. Philomena Okewo, explained that the CHMIS was a pilot programme to the six geo-political zones in Nigeria of which Delta State is privileged to take the South South geopolitical zone slot.
He explained further that the plan of action in Delta State was to carry out a pilot survey in three selected Local Government areas which included Aniocha North, Ika North East and Udu Council areas, using the CHMIS tools.
“In view of this, the Department of Planning, Research and Statistics of the Federal Ministry of Health in collaboration with the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) and other relevant stakeholders will continue to work closely to carry out the field-testing exercise with massive support from UNICEF,” he said.
According to the commissioner, “Community Health Management Information System (CHMIS) is the system or collection of systems that are implemented with the intention of merging data from the services delivered at the community level to complement the overall Health Information System (HIS).
“Comprehensive CHMIS is important because it assists in measuring the quality of health services by identifying disease outbreaks and planning for public health emergencies, providing information for managing conditions like HIV and TB whose treatment regimen require high level of adherence, ANC and Immunization coverage at the community level.”
“CHMIS also provides contextual data for informed community decision making as well as promotion of community ownership of health situation and progress, as well as allows for easy access to online community health information that provides a more inclusive and comprehensive national health status which informs better health programming and resource allocation,” he added.
In her remarks, Mrs. Hannah Jonathan, Team Leader, Federal Ministry of Health, said that at the end of the training, field work and findings that would arise from the activity would be used by the State Ministry of Health to plan properly on the way forward for the state in meeting health needs.
She said that since support from UNICEF to Delta State would not be forever, there was the need for the state to take ownership and ensure that the community level information system did not stop functioning.
Participants included Executive Secretaries, Monitoring and Evaluation Officers, Desk Officers, Community Health Influencers, Promoters and Supporters, Reproductive Health Coordinators from each of the three pilot Council areas, Officials from UNICEF, World Health Organisation, state and Federal ministries of Health, state and Federal Primary Health Care Development agencies.
The two-day event would serve as training for state Facilitators/Trainers on the 2022 version of the Community Health Management Information System (CHMIS) tools and Standard Operative Procedures in preparation for field testing across the three pilot Council areas in the state.
