Health
THE Katsina State Contributory Healthcare Management Agency (KTSCHMA) says no fewer than 320,000 civil servants have been enrolled into its contributory healthcare programme.
The agency’s Director-General, Mr Muhammad Safana, gave the figure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Katsina.
According to the director-general, the figure represents 93 per cent of the civil servants in the state.
He said that the programme was initiated as part of efforts to achieve universal health coverage in the state.
Safana said Gov. Aminu Masari signed the bill establishing the agency into law on Dec. 10, 2018.
“I was appointed the director-general of the agency on May 31, 2019. We did baseline survey on the programme and completed all the necessary arrangements.
“On July 1, 2021, the governor officially flagged off access to healthcare for the formal sector, which comprised the state civil servants, local governments and the SUBEB, as well as the organised private sector.
“When our enrolees reached almost 100,000, we printed identity cards for them to go to hospitals to access the services.
“Our accredited healthcare facilities are Primary Healthcare Centres, Comprehensive Healthcare Centres, as well as the General Hospitals,” he said.
Safana also highlighted that provision was made for referral procedures and protocols for cases beyond the capacity of the accredited health facilities.
“Between the time we started this programme and now, we were able to successfully enrol no fewer than 320,000 workers, representing 93 per cent of the civil servants in the state, and 73 per cent are dependants.
“Out of the 320,000 enrolees, we have almost 45,000 who are under the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, which is an informal sector programme by the Federal Government,” he added.
According to him, each enrolee has the right to add a spouse and four biological children below 18 years as dependants.
“If the enrolee has many wives and children, he can pay extra money for each of them to access the services throughout the year,” he said.
Safana identified some of the challenges militating against the programme as lack of awareness and abuse of the system by some enrolees who collect drugs and sold them.
According to the official, some enrolees also give their identity cards to other people not enrolled in the programme, to access the services.
The director-general also highlighted insecurity as part of the challenges confronting the programme in the state.
“There are areas that we can’t reach due to insecurity, we can’t go and register enrolees, especially under the informal sector,” he said. (NAN)
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Tags: Gov. Aminu Masari KTSCHMA Muhammad Safana
