RIVCHPP Interview: SIM JARA progress, vulnerable persons enrollment, and quality healthcare initiatives

RIVCHPP Acting Executive Secretary, Dr. Vetty Agala,discusses progress on key healthcare initiatives, including free surgeries, vulnerable persons enrollment, and quality control measures, in this exclusive interview with the Editor in Chief, Africa Update Newspaper Gloria Boma Harry

QUESTION: The first question would be: you said there would be 50 free surgeries for SIM JARA enrollees between January 27th and 31st. We would like to know the level of participation. Have you been able to get the 50 enrollees?

RESPONSE : Between January 27th and February 3rd, we had about 68 people show up, so we already have our 50 people. Now, the thing about this free surgery, per se, is that because the SIM JARA plan (which people are already buying into) already includes surgery—the surgeries we already want to do, whether appendectomy, etc.—anything captured in the plan is already covered. However, usually, with the SIM JARA plan and other informal sector plans, when you pay and register, it takes a minimum of 30 to 60 days before you can access care.

That period gives us time for logistics, reaching out to the hospital, and preparing your card, among other things. But for the Governor’s birthday, we are saying that if you register today and you have a surgical issue, we will take care of it. So, yes, we have more than 50 people on the list as of today, and we have done 33 cases already. Now, the reason some haven’t been done is not because we can’t do them, but because, for a number of them, their blood pressure isn’t okay. So, we need to ensure that their blood pressure is controlled. There are a lot of investigations you need to do before you can carry out surgery.

So, that’s why we haven’t quite finished, but my team and I think that in the next week or two, we should be able to clear the remaining cases because we are already controlling blood pressure levels and boosting blood levels.

QUESTION: You also mentioned the mass enrollment of 50,000 vulnerable persons across all LGAs, and you recognized seven LGAs that have so far identified with the RIVCHPP. So, within this period, have you recorded additional LGAs also keying into it, and what has been the success rate so far, going by your 50,000 target for vulnerable persons across the LGAs?

RESPONSE: Yes, we said we were going to enroll 50,000 vulnerable persons across the 23 LGAs. We talked about seven LGAs that had started the process. So, what we have done at the RIVCHPP level is to begin engaging the LGAs. Remember that the Commissioner for Health had done that initial engagement. They are all aware, and we at RIVCHPP are following up.

So, we are following up to get the buy-in from the remaining LGAs that didn’t, at that time, put a call through or send an email to say, “Oh, we are game.” But I want to let you know that most of the LGA Chairmen are already coming on board. We have been talking to medical officers, who are like the health commissioners at the LGA level, and we are working on that.

Before the coming weeks, I believe that many more will have come on board. We at RIVCHPP are just preparing to kickstart that enrollment process. We are starting with Abua and moving on from there. So, yes, we are having more and more LGAs buy into this. And even beyond the LGAs, people are coming up to say, “Oh, I want to register some of my people in my church communities, in my old student association,” and all manner of things. So, yes, a lot of progress is being made, and when we hit the 50,000 mark, we will let you know.

QUESTION: The last question would be your stance on zero tolerance when it comes to extortion and ensuring that the quality of health delivery is at an acceptable level. And your strategy when it comes to quality control and compliance with standards.

RESPONSE: Yes, thank you very much for that. Quality is one of the cornerstones of universal health coverage. We want to protect you from financial risk, but we are also interested in the quality of services that our people receive. We want to expand coverage, and so, as I said before, we have a quality assurance team that visits facilities at least once a month, for now. We also have personnel at the LGA level who monitor what is happening across the facilities.

Unfortunately, for now, we don’t yet have a facility-based person domiciled in each facility ensuring that they address enrollee issues at the facility level.

The good thing is that everyone deserves quality health care, and so what we try to do is provide a lot of training and retraining.

We are training health workers on how better to serve our people, and we are also raising awareness among our people, saying, “This is the kind of care that you deserve. This is how to reach us if you have any concerns.” Our call center is open 24/7.

We have received calls before, we have investigated, we have found health workers who have extorted people, and we have dealt with it. Funds have been refunded in such cases. We have also addressed situations where deductions were made from someone’s payments when they did not do what they were supposed to do, or when they asked our clients to purchase medications they were not supposed to buy.

But remember, what we are doing is providing basic health services. Basic meaning the things that would ordinarily kill people, drive them into poverty, and all that. That is what we are trying to address. So, we are trying to ensure that common issues like malaria, people dying just trying to have a baby, babies dying from diarrhea, respiratory tract infections, all of that are addressed. We manage primary care at the primary health care facility level. When there is a reason for referral to the secondary level of care, then there is a referral. The good thing is that the Rivers State government has also made available emergency medical services and ambulance systems.

We have already been onboarded and it is working. So, everything is working together for the good of the people of Rivers State, and we just have to thank His Excellency, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, for his visionary leadership, and the Commissioner of Health, Dr. Adaeze Ureh, for her strategic leadership to ensure that health for all Rivers people is possible.