Politicians urged to commit to health plan

ALL politicians have been urged to commit themselves to implementing the new national health plan (NHP 2011-20).
The plan was designed to strengthen and ensure that primary health care and improved service delivery reaches the rural majority through the input of both the health workers and leaders at the national, provincial and district level.
There are eight key goals in the plan:
* Strengthening partnerships and co-ordination; 
* Strengthening health systems; 
* Improve service delivery; 
* Improve child survival; 
* Improve maternal health; 
* Reduce burden of communicable diseases; 
* Promote healthy lifestyles; and 
* Improve preparedness for disease outbreaks and emerging population health issues.
The executive manager of strategic policy division, Elizabeth Gumbageti, said since the entire health system was decentralised, politicians and all their leaders at the district level would be held accountable for the poor health indicators in their provinces if the goals outlined in the plan were not achieved.
Gumbageti, who headed the development of the plan said for too long the minister and secretary had been blamed for the country’s poor health status.
She said key performance indicators would be used as tools to monitor the plan, adding that the indicators were linked to the goals and strategies in the plan.
Some of the indicators mentioned included community health post (replaces aid posts), roll out of provincial health authority and improving maternal health, adding they would use this as a measure to see if provinces were achieving the goals as outlined in the plan.
Gumbageti was speaking during a news conference yesterday where health secretary Dr Clement Malau outlined the new plan.
Malau said every leaders at the different levels of government must be accountable and responsible for health service delivery.
“Since independence, we’ve had so many plans but they did not capture the views of the people.
“With this one, we have done extensive consulting with district health managers and stakeholders, both national and international,” he said.