The NEWS (Monrovia)
C. Emmanuel Johnson
26 March 2008
Monrovia — Due to the high rate of maternal mortality, the proposed National Health Accounts plan is expected to target reproductive health care.
The plan would, among other things; find out how much is being invested in reproductive health care and what could be done to improve that segment of the health sector.
In his presentation Tuesday at a one-day stakeholders meeting on the National Health Accounts (NHA) plan, the head of the Health Financial Secretariat, Benedict Harris said the plan would also consider how much is being spent on key policy areas including maternal and newborn care, family planning , safe motherhood and adolescent reproductive health.
He said spending on trained traditional midwives, emergency obstetric services and expenditures on contraceptive commodities would also be considered by the NHA.
Mr. Harris said some of the key policy issues that would be addressed by the NHA include child health delivery which should be freed and malaria controlled.
He said the collection of data for the formulation of a unique health policy would be drawn from existing information, government executed budget and health information system (HIS) data.
Upon completion, the implementation of the NHA plan would be led by the Department of Planning and Research of the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare while the Ministries of Finance and Planning as well as the World Health Organization and Liberia Institute of Statistics and Geo-Information Services would serve on the technical committee to ensure smooth implementation of the plan.
Health and Social Welfare Minister Dr. Walter Gweningale expressed thanks and appreciation to his staff, UNICEF, World Bank including other ministries for their technical and financial supports toward the formulation of the NHA.
He said the idea of the NHA came at a time when Liberia is in dire need of improved health delivery services.
He said the NHA would augment government's spending on the health sector, and as such, urged all stakeholders to play their respective roles to ensure that the NHA yields positive results.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The NEWS. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
