Ikpeazu legacy shines, FG’s PHCUOR names Abia best in PHC policy implementation

Observations from empirical research have shown that Abia State, during the administration of Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, progressed massively in the implementation of the Federal Government’s Primary Healthcare Under One Roof (PHCUOR).

Primary Health Care Under One Roof (PHCUOR) is a Primary Health Care (PHC) reform agenda driven by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) to reverse fragmentation in PHC delivery at sub-national levels by bringing PHC management, human resources, financing and operational responsibilities under one State level body, the State Primary Health Care Board (SPHCB).

Previously, PHCUOR carried out Scorecards 1-5, but in a recent report on Scorecard 6 which was conducted in August/September 2022, Abia State scored 100% in the assessment placing it in the 1st position nationwide.

The report showed that there “are 615 health facilities in the State: 518 (84%) are PHC facilities and 96 (16%) are SHC facilities. Ninety-three (481) per cent of the PHC facilities are public health facilities, while 7% (37) are private health facilities.”

There is the institutional framework which is made up of nine pillars with respective criteria through which PHCUOR arrives at its research findings and they are: Governance and Ownership, Legislation, Minimum Service Package (MSP), Repositioning, Systems Development, Operational Guidelines, Human Resources, Funding Sources and Structure and Office Setup.

In its report on Abia’s Comparative Discussion table, PHCUOR said, “Abia State PHCUOR implementation has recorded significant leaps through the period in view, with Scorecard 6 performance being the best and placing the state at the 1st position nationwide.

“Abia can be a model state for other states in the implementation of PHCUOR. Additionally, Abia state should begin to shift towards leveraging the full implementation of PHCUOR to significantly improve the state’s health outcomes. ”

According to the 2022 Scorecard-6 report, Abia’s performance using the nine pillars that the state scored 100% in Governance & Ownership, 100% in Legislation, 100% in MSP, 100% in Repositioning, 100% in Systems Development, 100% in Human Resources, 100% in Funding Sources, 100% in Operational Guidelines and another 100% in Office Set up.

According to the PHCUOR report, the I the Scorecard-6 were to (a) assess the current establishment status of PHCUOR institutional framework in the 36 States and FCT, (b) compare individual state progress in establishing the framework across Scorecards 4, 5 and 6, (c) systematically identify weak areas within the PHCUOR framework for individual states and recommend necessary support to improve states performances and (d) generate evidence for use in advocacy to government and non-government stakeholders on primary health care reform in Nigeria.”

The report stated that the data collected during the 2022 national PHCUOR scorecard 6 assessment exercise had been analysed leading to findings and appropriate recommendations contained in the report.

Some of the notable recommendations made include that, “Abia, Niger, and Plateau States should peer mentor other states to fully implement PHCUOR.

“States should periodically self-assess their PHCUOR implementation status to reduce or completely eliminate varied performance as recorded in the SC6 comparative analysis section.”