Needs Assessment of the Secondary Health Facilities Selected in 35 States to be Equipped for the Provision of Critical Care for COVID-19 Patients and Other Diseases of Public Health Importance

Description of the Project:

In Nigeria, the few hospitals with critical care capacities are tertiary health facilities, which are often located in the state capital or other big cities. This has resulted in inequitable access to critical care services in rural and semi-urban locations. Hospital equipment for critical care case management is lacking in many state-owned secondary health facilities, particularly in those located in rural and semi-urban locations, where most Nigerians receive routine and emergency care services.

It follows that if these health facilities in the rural and semi-urban areas are properly equipped for critical care case management, a large proportion of Nigerians will have guaranteed access to critical care, and it will also improve treatment outcomes for COVID-19 and other health conditions requiring critical care. It will also reduce unnecessary pressure on the tertiary facilities occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the pressure on the relatives of patients who always travel long distances to the tertiary health institutions in the cities to care for their loved ones.

One of the grant conditions that must be fulfilled before procuring equipment for critical care is the identification of the facilities that will receive the equipment and a proper needs assessment of the selected facilities. It is also important to assess the human resource capacity and leadership gaps to enable comprehensive support, allow the individual secondary health facility to benefit maximally from this investment, and provide required services to the clients.

The objectives of the project:

• Conduct a Needs Assessment of the secondary health facilities in the 34 states plus FCT.

• Development of the action plan based on the findings.

• Monitor the interventions and support provided to the facilities that will benefit from the equipment.

Interventions: PGS supported NACA in conducting a needs assessment of selected secondary health facilities in 35 states of Nigeria to equip them to provide critical care for COVID-19 patients and other diseases of public health importance in Nigeria. The assignment included support in designing and implementing an approach that results in the selection of secondary health facilities that reflect the best “value for investment” per state. It also involved implementing the appropriate assessment in the selected facilities to determine the exact support required per facility, as well as supporting the development of plans towards ensuring timely installation and utilization of equipment supplied (for critical care services) through the COVID-19 Response Mechanism (C19RM) intervention.

Related Activities: Data collection, Data Systems Design, GIS, National data collection using an ODK, Data cleaning and publishing, Decision support, Health facility assessment.