Facility Governing Committees (FGCs) Re-training

The year 2011 was one of the hectic and successful in Rungwe PBF Pilot Project Implementation.  It was basically featured with a lot of works and events which are worth noting.  One of the important event was re-training of the Facility Governing Committees (FGC’s) members from 12 health facilities under Rungwe PBF Pilot Project. Their main function is to strengthen the clients Voice in health care Provision in the health facilities apart from other functions. The activity took three days in total from 6^th- 8^th December 2011, and was done in three clusters by Rungwe PBF Pilot Project Team.

The Objective of the Training was to enhance the capacity of the facility Governing Committee (FGC’s) members in management of the health facilities by making concrete their roles and responsibilities. Thus, there were two presentations made by Zonal PBF Coordinator: The Roles and Responsibilities of Facility Governing Committees and the second presentation focused on the general information on Rungwe PBF Pilot Project.

The training was conducted in three clusters based on geographical location of the health facilities. Cluster one was Tukuyu which had these facilities: Igogwe Hospital, Tukuyu Health Centre, Kisa Health Centre, Rungwe Mission Dispensary and Kalebela Dispensary. Cluster two was Mwakaleli and composed of three health facilities namely: Mwakaleli, Mbigili and Mpata Dispensaries.  The third Cluster was Itete with four facilities: Itete hospital, Ntaba Dispensary, Manow Dispensary and Kasyabone Dispensary.

Generally, the participation was good. On 6^th December 2011 at Tukuyu Cluster (56%) attended the session. It was followed by training on 7^th December 2011, at Mwakaleli Cluster and the participation was (82%), and lastly, on 8^th December 2011, at Itete Cluster the attendance was (80.9 %).

Additionally, the training was used as a feedback session for the facility Governing Committee members on how they performed their roles and responsibilities and the challenges they encountered in playing their roles. It was clear they play a linking role between the clients and the facility management.  The training enabled members to see their roles in concrete terms and they eventually promised to work hand in hand with the facilities management teams  to improve the health facilities conditions for the benefit of the community.

Being an adult learning, the facilitator employed participatory methodology- thus it was brief presentation and followed by discussions and Comments.  As the results, the participants made number of comments regarding improving the health facilities.  The outstanding ones being: health facilities to recruit the retired Medical Personnel to curb the acute human resource gaps experienced. Another comment  was to orient the facility Governing members on  the Strategic and Operational Plans and use the plans. Lastly, the in charges to contact the District Medical Officer (DMO) for the remuneration of the Facility Governing Committees (FGC’s)members when they meet as part of their motivation.  Currently, most of the health facilities are facing financial constraints to the extent of failing calling meetings according to schedules which is on quarterly basis.

In a nutshell, the re-training of the Facility Governing Committee members managed to achieve the set objective. It is anticipated that they will link the community and health facilities, and in so doing the client’s voice be strengthened, which will lead to improve health services provision in the health facilities they represent.

See Group Photo of the Participants after training Session at Mwakaleli Cluster.