Abstract:

The study sought to investigate the impact of Direct Health Facility Funding on Service Delivery in Primary Healthcare Facilities in Plateau State. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed. The findings from the quantitative analysis revealed that the introduction of Direct Health Facility Funding has improved the standard of maternal and child health services, standard of malaria treatment and control services, standard immunization services by improving the availability of vaccines, ensuring wider coverage immunization particularly in rural communities. The thematic analysis also indicated that the introduction of direct financing of facilities in the Primary Health Care facilities in Plateau State has improved that the standard of child and maternal health services in the primary healthcare centres in Plateau State and this has been attributed to financial autonomy provided by the Direct Health Facility Funding scheme. It has also led to the improvement in the standard of facility maintenance and renovation. The study recommends that there is need to devise means of ameliorating these challenges. The Ministry of Health should provide the policy guidelines on management of government health funds to primary health facilities to be used by the facility management committees and the health workers. A committee should be setup comprising of management staff of primary health facilities, community leaders and staff of the ministry of health to monitor how funds disbursed to primary health facilities are expended.

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