FAMIY PLANNING IN RURAL AREAS: FG STEPS UP STRATGY WITH ITS PARTNERS TO SCALE UP ACCESS

Ngeria's Health Minister

Nigeria's Ministry of Health in collaboration with its partners, have begun implementing the approved Task-sharing and Task-shifting Policy for essential healthcare services which authorize lower cadres of health workers including Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWs), to administer implants and intra-uterine contraceptive devices (IUCDS) other than Nurse and Midwives only.

A statement issued by Boade Akinola, Director of Media and Public Relations on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Health, stated that, "this is because, the numbers of Community Health Extension Workers outnumber the Nurses working in the Primary Healthcare centers in the rural areas and, there is great need to provide family planning service to the women in the rural areas".

"Having selected Kaduna and Ondo state as pilot states to kick start the programme, the Federal Ministry of Health, supported by Marie Stopes International Nigeria and other partners, trained Community Health Extension Workers in the two states to insert and remove implants and IUCDs contraceptives in women who require the services in rural areas".

The Honourable Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, while speaking during the dissemination of reports from studies conducted in the two States; Kaduna and Ondo, on the trial programme, in Abuja, said that; "one of the major barrier for accessing family planning in Nigeria is shortage and unequitable distribution of the appropriates cadres of health workforce to deliver healthcare services where they are most needed".

“There are shortage of virtually all the cadres of healthcare workers resulting in poor utilization of many of our health facilities for essential services”.

According to the Minister, "the development of National Task-sharing and Task-shifting policy was aimed at increasing access to services such as family planning in Nigeria".

The Federal Ministry of Health had approved the National Task-Shifting and Task-sharing policy for essential healthcare services in Nigeria in October 2014  as a key step to addressing the problem of health workforce shortage with anticipated adaptation and implementation at all levels of National health system, Adewole stated.

“Let me reiterate that, the National Task-Shifting and Task Sharing policy was not designed to take away task from any professional group but rather, to make the best use of the cadres of staff currently employed and deployed to health facilities across the country",  Adewole noted.

In his remarks, the Country Director, Marie Stopes Nigeria Pharm. Effiong E. Effiong, said that Marie Stope Nigeria had supported the Federal Ministry of Health and the State Ministries of Health in capacity building of CHEWs to implement the Task-sharing and Task-shifting policy in the two states.

According to Effiong, "the study evaluated whether CHEWs could insert implants and contraceptives services as safely as Nurses and midwives can do and it had been proven that with adequate training CHEWs can performed as well as Nurses and Midwives".