Kogi state government on Friday trained 315 health workers on data reporting drawn across the 21 local government area of the state.
The Executive Director, Kogi State Primary Health Care Development Agency (KSPHCDA), Dr Abubakar Yakubu, disclosed this in Lokoja at a sensitization meeting with LGA health authority stakeholders on COVID-19 vaccination and primary health care system strengthening on data reporting.
Yakubu, who stated that the sensitization programme which was organized by his agency with support from World Health Organization (WHO) through the ‘Can Give Project’, said the training will enable Kogi state have accurate data on reporting health intervention programmes.
Represented by the focal Person ‘Can Give Project’, Dr Emmanuel Bola, the KSPHCDA Executive Director said “We have invited 15 health workers from each Local Government Area to come together to see how we can improve reporting of public health event in the Local Government and every form of intervention in the health sector and to make sure that our report are accurate from the grassroot.
“We all know how data are collected. It is collected from the primary source down to the highest level. We expect that every Child that is immunized, given vitamins and other health intervention is documented appropriately and reported accurately. This sensitization will help to stimulate the team that we can do better in Kogi State in term of data reporting of health intervention programmes”.
He, however, commended the WHO for ensuring each stakeholders from the Local Government are properly trained in a bid to understand the rudiment of data quality and reporting.
Earlier, in his remarks, the Kogi State Coordinator of WHO, Dr Raji Muktar Toyosi explained that the workshop will further enable Kogi State to have a qualitative data to make necessary health intervention.
“Without qualitative data, we won’t be able to have health intervention that we can adequately plan for. That is one of the reason WHO in Kogi State through the ‘Can Give Project’ is also facilitating stakeholders engagement to ensure that the State maintain the lead in accurate date reporting of health intervention programmes.
“This engagement will help us to improve on COVID-19 vaccination and also improve the data quality issue that has been identified. It is also a form of system strengthening grant in which we will look at how to strengthen the system as regards vaccination, and data reporting system,” he stated
He disclosed further that, the agency had identified discrepancies at the Local Government level during data collection and reporting.
Toyosi said “At the health facilities level, we found out that there are some level of discrepancies in some of the health facilities down to when it get to the LGA level. This are some of the thing we are trying to improve upon by ensuring that data from one level to another is accurate and well captured”.
