By Theresa Kef Sesay
Vice President, Hon. Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, is leading a delegation from the Sierra Leone Social Health Insurance (SLeSHI) to Dakar, Senegal to understudy progress made by Senegal towards Universal Health Care (UHC).
Senegal has made significant improvements in infant and maternal mortality and contraceptive prevalence rates, and the country benefits from high level political commitment to universal health coverage (UHC).
Its health financing has been able to support the development of key sector strategies such as the National Health Development Plan, Community Health Strategy and the health financing strategy. HSS+ technical assistance is strengthening 380 community health insurance schemes so that they can better serve their members. In the intervention regions, these community health insurance schemes, or mutuelles, are providing households with financial protection when they seek health services.
On the area of community engagements, Senegal helped establish 1,478 health development committees and other platforms, so that community members can be more involved in identifying challenges and solutions to their local health problems. The health development committees have successfully negotiated with local authorities, mayors and other local actors to allocate resources to purchase new equipments and hire health workers.
The Sierra Leone delegation is expected to tap into the resources of the progress made so far by Senegal and have slated to have discussions with several relevant stakeholders in the health sector. The team is expected also to visit several hospitals in the regions, health care centers in Dakar and the teaching hospital in Touba. The study tour ends on March 5th, 2022.
It could be recalled that on the 4th August, 2021, the Hon. Vice President Dr. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh hosted an inter-ministerial committee on Sierra Leone Social Health Insurance scheme at his Tower Hill office, Freetown. During the meeting, he emphasized the vision of President Dr. Julius Maada Bio to provide affordable health care to Sierra Leoneans. He said SLeSHI was a social health insurance scheme for Sierra Leoneans that focuses on the reduction of out of pocket expenditure on medicals. It aims at improving access to quality medical services for all and improved equity in medical services.
Part of the Sierra Leone delegation includes the Minister of Health and Sanitation, Dr. Austin Demby, the Minister of Labour and Industrial Relations, Alpha O. Timbo the Financial Secretary, Sahr Jusu, the Deputy Director General NASSIT, Mohamed Gondoe, Dr. Machael Amara- Lead Consultant SLeSHI, the UN Women Country Representative, Ms. Setcheme Mongbo and the SLeSHI Consultant Ms. Juliet Laverly.
There is a renewed call for long-term, sustainable, and equitable progress towards achieving universal health coverage (UHC) and improving health for all Sierra Leoneans as Sierra Leone continues to recover and return to pre-Ebola health system priorities.
Sierra Leone now has a robust revitalized integrated disease surveillance and response (IDSR) system with countrywide coverage. The vision of the new National Health Sector Strategic Plan is a well-functioning national health system that delivers efficient and high-quality healthcare, accessible, affordable and equitable to all.
