The Kaduna State Contributory Health Management Authority (KAD-CHMA) has distributed additional 5,000 basic health care identification cards to vulnerable groups under a mop up exercise in the state.
The Director-General of the State Contributory Health Management Authority, Aliyu Saidu, disclosed this on Thursday to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna.
NAN reports that the state government had so far distributed 45,000 identification cards to the groups out of the 60,000 it captured under its universal healthcare programme.
He said the exercise was concentrated in the local government areas facing various security challenges.
He said the state government conducted the exercise to ensure that all residents including the vulnerable groups were covered by the insurance scheme.
“We were able to conduct the mop up exercise for local government areas with security challenges where we covered both the aged, under five and people with disabilities,” he said.
According to him, the government had a universal basic healthcare programme targeted at vulnerable groups for them to access free healthcare in the state.
He, however, noted that the identification cards were only valid for one year and would be renewed after their expiration.
Saidu said that the state government would continue with the scheme to transform its healthcare sub- sector for the benefits of the people in the state.
” Kaduna State in this contributory scheme is almost ahead of others and I wish to see more people accessing healthcare facilities soon.
“This programme is performance-based and I want the state to lead while others follow.”
He urged the beneficiaries, especially pregnant women and mothers, to utilise the opportunity by patronising the facilities of their choices to tackle their health challenges.
“You have a lot of priviledges to benefit from the services which include: emergency, antenatal care, deliveries, neonatal care, surgical services, internal medicine and postnatal care.
“Others include: Gynaecology care, childhood Illnesses, chronic disease management, Ophthalmic care, Family Planning, lmmunisation, Blood Transfusion, Dental Care , X-RAY services and laboratory services.
” As it stands, we are the second highest in the country, we just started middle of last year.
” We are getting across to them because we see how much the scheme is impacting on the lives of our people.
” Most people lost their lives because of minimal disease and were afraid to remove money from their pockets to pay for the treatment,” Saidu said.(NAN)
