PAS PARTNER NACHPN CONDUCTS ADVOCACY VISIT TO THE PERMANENT SECRETARY (PS) LSPHCB ON FINDINGS FROM THE RAPID RESEARCH ON THE DISRUPTION OF RI & FP SERVICES IN LAGOS STATE DUE TO THE PANDEMIC.

NACHPN-PAS on the 21st of August 2020 made a visit to Dr Aina Ayoola, the PS of Lagos state Primary Health Care Board, on the Findings of a Rapid Research conducted on the impact of COVID -19 on RI and FP services for the past 3 months (April-June 2020) and possible ways of addressing and resolving the findings.

The advocacy visit asked the PS to

• Engage more health workers (HRH) to achieve universal health coverage (UHC)
• Review the design of our health facility to accommodate emergency situation such as Covid-19 pandemic
• Invest in a capable national team giving them sufficient resources and authority to expertly manage the National Immunization Program.
• Fund RI to enable vaccinators and district managers systematically building their capacity, strengthening their performance, and providing supportive supervision.
• Timely release appropriated funds for the operational level of the program regularly.
• -Invest incoherent planning cycles, with strategies, comprehensive, multi-year and operational annual plans outlining and coordinating strategies and activities which are monitored quarterly.

The advocacy visit leads to the:

• The permanent secretary of LSPHCB accepting the findings of the rapid research of NACHPN-PAS Lagos state agreeing that there were disruption of services in the areas of RI and FP
• The PS also accepted that as a result of COVID-19 there was significant drop in % coverage in RI and FP with the dangers of increased number of unimmunized children, exposure of the children to vaccine preventable diseases, unintended pregnancies etc.
• The PS committed that the government will be developing strategies to address the impact of the disruption of services in RI and FP.