The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has advised the Imo Government to develop a workable blueprint for the health sector in the state.

The UNICEF’s Health Specialist, Enugu Field Office, Dr Olusoji Akinleye, made the call on Tuesday at the Reproductive Maternal Neo-natal Child Adolescent Health Nutrition Scorecard Development Workshop in Owerri.

Akinleye recommended that the blueprint be designed to serve as roadmap towards meeting the WHO’s standard to enable the state government to provide functional health services to the populace.

He advised the Imo government to key into the global best practices, describing the importance of the health sector in human endeavour as enormous.

He charged monitoring and evaluation officers at the local government level to present collated data in a holistic and sustainable manner that could stand the test of time.

Akinleye said: “A workable blueprint that can stand the test of time is necessary to achieve sustainable healthcare service delivery in Imo.

“Monitoring and evaluation officers should be made to work in a sustainable, harmonious manner.

“Over-reporting and under-reporting should be discouraged.”

Also, UNICEF’s health consultant, Dr John Quinley, said the organisation was working with government at the state and federal levels to strengthen the healthcare system.

Quinley said that UNICEF’s data were colour-coded in a way that at a glance, citizens could identify how they were faring so that the scorecards could compel the administrative units of local governments to keep accurate records.

“This approach was developed by African Leaders Malaria Alliance and has spread throughout Africa.

“The Federal Ministry of Health has developed a national scorecard through the assistance of UNICEF and Imo is one of 28 states of Nigeria to key into the system,” he said.

Responding, the Imo Commissioner for Health, Dr Barthy Okorochukwu, said the state government had rolled out free medicare for all women undergoing antenatal care and child delivery, including those who put to bed through a caesarian section.

Okorochukwu, represented by Dr Uloma Evi-Parker, a director in the ministry, said that all children under the age of five were treated freely through the state’s Health Insurance Scheme and Primary Healthcare Development Agency.

According to him, the state government is doing everything to achieve universal health coverage in the state.