April 2011 Supportive Supervision

In this quarter the supportive supervision was done in 11 health facilities out of 12 health facilities planned.  The exercise took a total of 5 days.

As planned, the supportive supervision aimed at making follow up of issues raised as performance indicators in the health facilities.

In most of these facilities, Zonal PBF Coordinator either met the management of the health facilities or in charge of the health facility plus the assistant, which was common for the Dispensary level.

 From the general assessment, it was noted that there has been an improvement in the health facilities in the areas of record keeping.  It was manifested by better keeping of vital records at the facility level, which included: Reports, patient’s records, and general filling system which was formerly in very poor shape especially dispensaries.

Moreover, ledgers for medical supplies were found well recorded.  Again, information on HMIS was recoded and reports i.e. quarterly reports submitted to the DMO as required. 

Additionally, it was noted that most health facilities Facility Governing Committees for are meeting, though some dispensaries found it difficult to call these meetings on quarterly basis as a result of financial constraints.

On the other hand, the management meeting active for hospitals, but for Dispensaries and health centres there is no formal meeting neither minutes as they say they meet and discuss issues which crop up but not formalized.  No minute was seen from Dispensary and Health centre.  However, they were advised to have these important meeting and document issues discussed.

The issue of staff turn over was extensively discussed.  It was noted that hospital and health centres are currently hit hard by this situation.

Moreover, Institutional deliveries are still quite low in many health facilities.  Probably the trend will change at the hospital level as the hospital are instructed by DMO to have free services for pregnant women and under five children as per CCHP Guideline.  Again, the big challenge was noted on the Post natal Care, which was affiliated with traditions and culture in most cases.

Therefore, it is anticipated that the supportive supervision will improve the capacity of health facilities in ensuring performance of the day to day activities and thus contribute towards better health care provision.