Gombe ministry commissions Data Diagnostic Centre
The Gombe State Ministry of Health has established and commissioned Data Diagnostic Centre to serve as a hub of data collection for the health sector.
Commissioning the centre, the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Health, Alhaji Danladi Adamu, said the data centre would showcase what the health sector is doing .
He said data lightens up activities of an organisation for people to see, adding that it’s paramount for effective planning and coordination of activities for improved service delivery .
“The Data will showcase all that ,the health sector is doing, with this Data Diagnostic Centre, the establishment and Inauguration of the technical working group, we will now have continuous data and updates,” he said.
The Permanent Secretary said the Ministry has set up objectives and they have been achieved but that people do not know about the achievements hence the establishment of Data Diagnostic Centre will bring to fore all the happenings in the health sector .
Adamu added, “Whenever any relevant key data is sought, from the health sector, it will be handy to show to either partners, Federal ministry of health and other stakeholders.”
He said the technical working had been commissioned and the opening of the centre will kick start the collection, collation and dissemination of data. He appreciated the partners for supporting the establishment of the centre and called on officers whom are mostly monitoring and evaluation officers to handle the centre meticulously and follow due process before releasing data.
Earlier, the Director Research and Statistics, the ministry of health Dr Suraj Abdulkarim, said data is the main source of evidence-based reporting for good planning.
Abdulkarim said, “It is expected that whatever you are doing it has to be evidence based.Data is the main source of that.
“Whatever we are doing if we do not analyse, we will not be able to know what to plan and how to execute the activities so that is why considering the importance ministry of health attach to data, we are Inaugurating this Centre which is established to bring in all together everyone that has any stake as regards to issue of data in the state.”
Abdulkarim said the centre will bring all relevant health agencies together such as he GoHealth, Primary Health Care Development Agency, Hospital Management Board and civil society organisations to harmoniously work together so as to speak with one voice.
“Right now we so many segments in terms of data,if you ask someone to give you one data,he will only give you what he knows but if we harmonise the data we will speak with one voice. With this we should make progress to digital data and be transmitted at any point in time.This will help in planning,” Abdulkarim said.
He explained that the process will be digitised and visualised to project information, saying that the collection of data will be on continuous basis, but that the technical working group will meet every month to look at the data, make analysis and give a summary to the management of ministry of health so it can be transmitted to the governor for planning and decision making.
On his part, Director Public Health Dr David Karatu, reiterated the importance of data to a meaningful planning.
“The DDC if properly utilised will serve as a hub for the North-East considering the peaceful co-existence in the state,” Karatu added.
Meanwhile, the State Ministry of Health has received a team from the National Agency for the Control of AIDS, Resilient Sustainable Systems for Health grants in collaboration with National Primary Health Care Development Agency on an advocacy and sensitisation visit for the evaluation of Community Health Influencers Promoters Services CHIPS programme .
The leader of the team Dr Ibrahim Ahmed Aliman, from the University of Maryland Baltimore in Abuja , said the CHIPS programme is supported by RSSH funding from NACA implemented by NPHCDA in seven states, Gombe state inclusive.
He said for the purpose of Scaling up and reviewing the programme, the NACA RSSH grants called for an evaluation of the program hence the visit to Gombe State.
Dr Aliman said the essence is to see what has been implemented so far in the past few years, gains and lessons learnt for the scaling up and expansion of the program
He said four local government areas of Gombe, Yamaltu Deba, Balanga and Dukku were selected for the programme and the team has done on the spot assessment of the health facilities.
Aliman said the team is impressed with what was seen in these facilities as services are being offered and documentation up to date adding that data collection will be commencing very soon followed by evaluation.
He said by the time this is done ,report of findings will be disseminated and will advise the state and national level on what was found.
Responding, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Adamu assured the team of the ministry’s support for the success of the program
The RSSH is a health scheme designed to support the Nigerian government to strengthen its health system, policy standards and curtail AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
PERISCOPE NIGERIA gathered that if is successfully done, Gombe state will become a principal recipient of global fund thereby enhancing the health sector for the good of the people and health workers.
The Ministry of Health is currently working towards achieving its focus of policy formation, data development and health service delivery
