HEFAMAA Holds Stakeholders’ Session To Develop A 5-Year Strategic Plan: Promises to Strengthen Healthcare Delivery

 L-R: Board Member, Health Facility Monitoring and Accreditation Agency, Mr. Olurotimi Awojide; Executive Secretary, Dr. Abiola Idowu; State Team Lead for Strategic Purchasing, Family Planning Project, Dr. Olajide Sobande and Board Member, HEFAMAA, Mr. Biyi Kufo at the opening of a stakeholders' Session on the Development of HEFAMAA's five-year Strategic Plan at Jubilee Chalets, Oke-Oyinbo Epe, Lagos. 

                            

The Health Facility Monitoring and Accreditation Agency, HEFAMAA has concluded a 3-day stakeholder session on the development of a 5-year strategic plan to improve the quality of healthcare delivery to the citizenry.

Speaking on Wednesday at the opening ceremony of the conference held at Jubilee Chalets, Epe, the Executive Secretary of the Agency, Dr. Abiola Idowu disclosed that the primary aim of the session is to drive the relevant conversations and reach the right consensus to enable the Agency re-strategize to achieve its strategic mandate.

She further explained that the session will enable the Agency review its performance against expectations of key stakeholders and leading practice, discuss strategic challenges confronting it and articulate actionable solutions to address them in the present and future even as she added, “ the stakeholder’s session will help the Agency revalidate and reach a consensus on the strategic direction, agree on the key anchors for growth over the planning horizon as well as the key strategies to unlock them.”

“As we envision where we want to be in the next five years, we are taking steps to reposition HEFAMAA in order to improve the quality of services rendered to our clients and the general public. This is why we are focusing on critical areas such as leveraging technology to provide efficient services, training and retraining of HEFAMAA staff and facility operators, increasing community participation and health education as well as increasing our engagements with stakeholders and the general public,” she explained.

While appreciating the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwoolu for supporting the stakeholder session Idowu noted that his actions confirm that he is passionate about the health and wellbeing of the citizenry.

She however disclosed that the Agency is faced with some challenges including the shortage of manpower and vehicles to carry out the daily monitoring and inspection of health facilities in the State adding that the current human resource capacity of the Agency is inadequate to carry out the mandate efficiently.

“Few of the challenges we are currently facing include shortage of human resource although the State Government has approved that we franchise our monitoring activities to reputable organisations so that we can focus on accreditation and other responsibilities of the Agency.

We also need more vehicles to be able to visit health facilities in the State at least twice a year. It should be noted that HEFAMAA has registered over 4,000 public and private health facilities and more are still being registered. Our mandate is to accredit and license as well as monitor and inspect all the health facilities to ensure they comply with the set standards,” she explained.

The Executive Secretary also commended Professor Akin Abayomi, the State’s Commissioner for Health and the entire leadership of the Ministry for their unwavering support for the Agency’s programmes and activities.

In her welcome remarks, Chairman HEFAMAA Board, Dr. Yemisi Solanke Koya emphasized the significance of crafting a strategic plan for the Agency which she believed will go a long way in assisting it to achieve its mandate.

“We cannot accomplish our mandate without a strategy, so also we cannot operate without strategic thinking and planning,” she opined.

The Chairman however urged participants to contribute meaningfully to the discussion to engender a robust strategic plan that will point the way forward for the Agency in the next five years.

One of the participants, Mrs. Ope Oduwale commended the State Government for approving the Stakeholders session noting that it will go a long way in improving the quality of services HEFAMAA renders to the people.

In his own words, State Team Lead for Strategic Purchasing for Family Planning Project, Health Systems Consult Limited, Dr. Olajide Sobande observed that the outcome of the conference will boost the capacity of HEFAMAA in ensuring that healthcare facilities in the State provide effective, safe, timely, and people-centered services.

Highlights of the conference include presentations on the Overview of the Lagos State Health Sector; Regulation as a Tool for Quality Healthcare Delivery; Leading Practice Review; Key Findings from the Current State Review; The Journey Ahead- Visioning for HEFAMAA amongst others.

The event was well attended by Board members of HEFAMAA, Partners, Chairmen and members of professional associations and other stakeholders.