The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has launched the Optimized Client-Centred Services (OptiCCs) to avert maternal health challenges in the country.
The Executive Director, NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, said on Tuesday in Abuja, during the National Flag-off, that the OptiCCs project seeks to build on three major intervention areas.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the country’s maternal mortality rate remains a public health concern.
According to the Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) 2018, 512 women died per 100,000 live births, accounting for 20 percent of global maternal deaths.
This is the highest number of women who die while giving birth in the country.
Shuaib said that currently the OptiCCs project is being implemented by the National Emergency Maternal and Child Health Intervention Center (NEMCHIC) at the NPHCDA.
The NPHCDA boss said that this intervention’s main goal is to optimize ante-natal care uptake by ensuring that every pregnant woman in the country’s primary health care facilities receives quality integrated PHC services and care.
He said that the OptiCCs intervention had four objectives as follows: “to increase the number of antenatal care (ANC) visits following the first ANC visit until delivery, thereby reducing dropout rates.”
“To improve the integration of ANC with other PHC services such as HIV testing and counseling, TB, malaria, and COVID, among others,
“To improve the provision and experience of quality antenatal care and the uptake of PHC services.”
“To build the capacity of health care workers on the provision of quality ANC and integrated PHC services,” he outlined.
He said that the pilot phase of the OptiCCS intervention would be in three states: Anambra, Kebbi, and Jigawa.
Ms. Fatima Zanna, German Development Cooperation/GIZ, Back-up Health, Country Team Lead, said that the project was financed by the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), co-financed by UK foreign, Commonwealth, and Department Offices, and implemented through GIZ Nigeria.
Zanna said that OptiCCs aims to generate evidence showing improvement in service delivery, service uptake, and quality of service using a digital application that would guide healthcare workers in promoting the integration of ANC and other PHC services.
She said ANC is an important platform to provide HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria services during pregnancy.
“It serves as a continuum for skilled attendance at birth and healthy behaviors such as breastfeeding and early postnatal care, including immunization and family planning.”
“Unfortunately, in Nigeria, low ANC attendance and high dropout rates have continued to impact negatively on maternal and child health outcomes,” she explained.
She said that with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic vaccine, research showed that the more frequent ANC visits a woman had, the better her pregnancy outcome.
The Country Representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Nigeria, Dr Walter Kazadi Molumbo, expressed the hope that if the intervention is deployed, PHCs in the country would experience a decrease in ANC dropout rates.
Molumbo said that there would be an increase in PHC deliveries, improved integration, quality provision of services, and quality data that would inform policymakers’ decisions on ANC optimization and service integration.
He said that the foundation of any strong health system and of Universal Health Coverage rests on a robust, resilient PHC system.
Speaking at the event, the Emir of Jiwa, Alhaji Idris Musa, said that maternal mortality had been identified as a major global health indicator.
Musa said that poor access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) remained a major challenge, contributing significantly to high levels of diarrhea-related deaths.
He expressed hope for the project, noting that maternity care that focused on women’s needs and treated women respectfully was likely to lead to greater satisfaction as well as better and more equitable health outcomes in the country.
(NAN)
