By Elijah Ugani: Health Correspondent
The Cross River State commissioner for health, Dr. Inyang Asibong says her ministry beat it’s counterparts across the country as well as the federal ministry of health in the development of a Strategic Health Development Plan.
Asibong made this known while addressing participants at a healthcare financing stakeholders meeting held in Calabar, the Cross River State capital where she maintained that “We have our operational document, the State health policy document known as the State Strategic Development Plan, we are the very first State to develop the plan, and even at the national level they have not concluded theirs”.
Explaining the aim of the insurance scheme introduced by the Governor Ben Ayade’s administration, She said that “The State supported insurance schemes is to achieve universal health coverage in achieving sustainable development goal 3 which is a step towards equity in health care delivery, to avoid out of pocket expenditure which hinders the less privileged. With the scheme, it means government will take over most of the people’s health needs”.
Furthermore, she promised that the health ministry will interface with relevant agencies and bodies to make them understand the need for the program and how to key in and pointed out that the objective of the meeting was to acquaint stakeholders in the health sector of the state’s health reform vision, as well as understand the roadmap and process required for the actualization of the vision among others.