At least 23 health facilities and 13 health workers have been presented with various awards of excellence and effective performance by the Bauchi State Health Contributory Management Agency (BASHCMA).
The award was presented as part of the 2022 Productivity Merit Award aimed at recognising hard-working and effective service delivery staff selected across the state by the Agency.
While speaking at the ceremony held on Thursday, the Executive Secretary of the Agency, Dr Mansur Dada stated that it was meant to boost morale and encourage effective service delivery in the sector.
According to Mansur Dada, the aim of the award presentation was to reward staff of the Agency that have distinguished themselves through hard-work, efficient management of resources and productivity.
He also said that, as well as those that showed high sense of commitment in the quest of the agency to achieve universal health coverage for all the citizens in the state.
According to him, “The Agency chose one Primary Healthcare Centre per each local government, that is 20 primary healthcare centers.We then chose one General Hospital per Senatorial zones, so we chose Three General Hospitals, making a total of 23 health facilities.”
“For the health workers, we awarded the best three Health desk officers in the local government, then we awarded 10 BASHCMA staff, making 13 health workers.”
Mansur Dada further said that, “The Bauchi State Health Contributory Management Agency (BASHCMA) like the National Health Authority, has started working and rigth now, we have three programmes and two out of the three programmes has started working.”
“We have the vulnerable programme, specifically the Basic Health Care Provision fund have started.We are in all the 323 wards in the 20 LGAs of the state.As part of the performance appraisal, there is what we call punishment and reward system, so this is part of the award system which we established in BASHCMA,” he said.
Also speaking at the event, the BASHCMA Governing Council, Chairman, Ibrahim Umar commended the management of BASHCMA for organizing the merit productivity award for hard-work health workers in the state.
He said that the award will keep motivating them and others to give in their best to their duties as well as boost the morals of those handling the public and private health facilities.
He also said that activities that are taking place in BASHCMA has gone far beyond Bauchi state to the extent that health facilities in the neighboring states of Yobe, Kano and Kaduna are emulating Bauchi.
Also Speaking, the Chairman of the Bauchi State Agency for the Control of HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis/Leprosy and Malaria (BACATMA), Dr Sani Danbam appealed to the management of BASHCMA to capture the HIV patients in the state in their Programmes.
Sani Dambam also said that most of the donor partners are gradually withdrawing their funding.
In his Goodwill message, the USAID-IHP Health Financing Advisor, Pharmacist Khalid Kasimu, appealed to the Head of Civil service in the state to put in all the machinery to ensure the immediate commencement of deductions from the salaries of the people in the formal sector.
He said that BASHCMA can start providing the benefits of health services at an affordable cost to the people, adding that most of them are spending out of their pockets to access healthcare.
He then called on the Bauchi state government to release the equity fund and one percent to BASHCMA for the enrollment of the vulnerable population, pointing out that the vulnerable population accounts for more than 70 percent of the people of the state.
Some of the awardees expressed joy over the recognition assuring that it will ginger them to do more for the good of the people of the state saying that it came at the time when all hands must be on deck for effective service delivery in the health sector.
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