The Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole, has called on the participants of the Policy Strategy and Leadership Course 26 of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, Plateau State to align their activities towards improving the health indices of the country.
The Minister made the call while meeting with the participants of the Course 26 of Policy Strategy and Leadership, led by Managing Consultant, Asipita Umar, in Abuja.
The delegation was at the Federal Ministry of Health to interact with Adewole on the National Health Policy, implementation and challenges in the health cector.
Adewole said the first National Health Policy was launched in 1988 and revised in 2004.
However, the new National Health Policy reflect new realities and trends, including the unfinished Millennium Development Goals.
It has also deliberated on the renewed commitment to Universal Health Coverage.
“We are here to dialogue with you so that you can also be advocate to us on the National Health Policy,” Adewole said.
The Minister said the present administration has introduced progammes aimed at providing free healthcare service to the poor, which consequently would lead to the achievement of the Universal Health Coverage.
He said the concept of revitalizing Primary Healthcare Centres across the country is to provide health care services to the rural populace.
This, according to the Minister, would reduce workload on the Tertiary Healthcare Institutions and would enable them to concentrate on complicated issues that cannot be handle at Primary Health care Centres.
Speaking on the rationale behind their visit, Umar, the Managing Consultant of NIPSS, said 10 years ago, the management of NIPSS felt that apart from training the highest levels policy makers, there was also a need to train the middle levels staff in policy, strategy and leadership.
He said NIPSS designed a one month programme to prepare intermediate class of civil and public servants as well as interested private sector participants to understand what policy and strategy are all about.
He added that the present set is set 26 of the course.
Another objective of the programme is to prepare the participants for the Senior Executive Course in feature.
Umar said: “The purpose of our visit is that the programme runs three modules – Policy, Strategy and Leadership – and the course is highly practical.
“Though we give them the theoretical aspect of it, participant will pick a particular National Policy for emphasis and this class has chosen National Health Policy and that is why we are here.”