Cross section of the audience
By Kadrie Koroma PRO Unit-MOHS
Health and Sanitation Minister, Dr. Alpha Tejan Wurie has officially opened a three day Health Service Delivery and System Support Project (HSDSSP) Mid Term Review Workshop on Tuesday June 26, 2018 at the Sierra Leone Police Officer’s Mess, Kingtom in Freetown.
The project is being implemented by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation with support from the World Bank.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Dr. Alpha Wurie stated that the focus of the HSDSSP and the Ebola Emergency Response Project (EERP) was to increase the utilization and improve the quality of essential maternal and child health services, and to improve immediate and effective response to said Eligible Crisis or Emergency.
He informed his audience that the implementation of the project started in 2016 and will end in 2019, adding that they have completed two years of implementation, and it is about time that the project is reviewed as they look forward to longer term and stronger collaboration with the World Bank.
Dr. Wurie noted that before the Ebola epidemic, the health sector faced critical challenges, including imbalances between the high level of health expenditures and the country’s poor health outcomes, low access to health services, poorly equipped health facilities, uneven distribution of the inadequate numbers of health personnel, weak capacity for effective implementation, coordination of policies and projects, and an inadequate surveillance and emergency preparedness capacity.
He told the gathering that his main focus on the review was to know what progress has been made, factors that threaten to undermine progress and what realistic and achievable recommendations that will be proffered to address them.
The Minister maintained that a key priority the government’s New Direction, led by His Excellency Julius Maada Bio, is to save cost and increase citizen’s access to quality health care services by developing the health physical infrastructure facilities beginning from the community to the tertiary level. He added that it is to upgrade the health personnel and training facilities, establishing blood transfusion units in all district hospitals and ensure regular and adequate supply of blood in the facilities.
World Bank Senior Health Specialist, Shiyong Wang, said the project was designed during the Ebola phase as an emergency and they are expecting the project to be completed within three years.
He said if they want to improve services and strengthen the health delivery system, they need a longer term, adding that they are in consultation to see that in the next 7 to 10 years, how the World Bank group can work with the government to strengthen the health sector to bring benefit to the Sierra Leoneans.
Giving an overview of the project, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer 1 and Coordinator, HSDSSP, Dr. Sarian Kamara said the equivalent cost of the project is USD$ 15 million and will be implemented over three years period.
She said the project has three components and part of it include supporting the Community Health Workers program which is looking at the 15, 000 health workers that they have in the country, making sure they are able to scale up activities such as reproductive and child health, focusing on hard to reach areas.
The opening ceremony was chaired by the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Brima Kargbo.