Projects

Name of project

Hygeia Community Health Care

Partners

Hygeia and Kwara State Government

Health insurance for farmers

Your contribution to Global Health Membership supports the programs of the Health Insurance Fund. Among other things, it makes health insurance affordable for people in Africa, so that they, too, can count on quality health care when they need it. Let’s take a closer look at, for example, our program in the Nigerian state Kwara.

Better clinics, healthier people

In collaboration with the local insurer and local government, the Health Insurance Fund is improving access to quality health care for the population of three local government areas of Kwara – primarily farmers. The program is clearly successful, as over 110,000 people are now insured. The fifteen participating clinics have made huge quality improvements and scientific research shows that the people in this insurance scheme are also considerably healthier. When people have insurance, they see a doctor earlier and more often (healthcare utilization up by 70%). Since the start of the program, people are receiving treatment sooner and are more educated about their own state of health.

Ambition

The Governor of Kwara sees the success of the program and wishes to extend it across the entire state. The goal is to have 600,000 people insured by 2017. As one of the poorest states in Nigeria, Kwara cannot realize this goal on its own. With your contribution, however, this vision may well become a reality.

Together with the Governor, we can make sure that health insurance becomes an affordable option for families in Kwara, and that quality health care becomes available throughout the state. This is a unique cooperation on the African continent.

Pregnant

For example, take shopkeeper Aishatu Atahiru. This 34-year-old mother of two lives in Kwara. During the last term of her second pregnancy, she was told that her baby was in a breech position: an extremely dangerous health situation for both mother and child in rural Nigeria. Luckily, Aishatu’s health insurance card gave her access to a clinic with trained doctors, where she gave birth to a healthy son. She was so grateful that she named her son after the local healthcare center. Hygeia is now five years old and sometimes helps out in his mother’s nut shop. Together, they are building a healthy future.

Name of project

SafeCare

Partners

Medical Credit Fund, KMET, PSI and APHFTA, Joint Commission International, COHSASA

Quality health care for all

Health insurance is one way to give people access to care. At the same time, providing access to care, let alone quality care, is one of the biggest challenges in Africa. The government hospital services are overextended and there is a shortage of proper equipment and trained medical staff.

SafeCare quality program

To address these challenges in Africa, Global Health Membership employs the internationally accredited SafeCare standards. SafeCare supports basic healthcare providers in resource-restricted settings to improve the quality of their services by working through a stepwise, structured quality improvement program.

The SafeCare standards were developed by PharmAccess in cooperation with two international accreditation organizations. They measure and improve the level of quality of the medical care in small clinics and hospitals all over Africa. The program assists doctors and healthcare providers in raising the standards of their services and operations. Through trainings and improvement plans, SafeCare helps healthcare facilities to make their medical services better and safer, step by step.

Improving quality

In the last two years alone, over 900 clinics in four countries have improved their services with this step-by-step method. Every month, these clincs receive over 700,000 patient visits. What’s more, four African governments are looking to adopt SafeCare as their national quality assurance program.

Substantial improvements

For example, take Dr. Hassan Ahmad, owner of a small clinic in Tanzania called Bonde Dispensary. After joining the SafeCare program he made substantial improvements to the entire clinic. In order to bring hygiene levels up to standard, he tiled the floor and walls of the whole clinic and installed running water in all rooms for hand washing. He also brought the laboratory and pharmacy up to scratch and arranged separate examination rooms. These changes led to a huge improvement in his healthcare services. And more patients!

Name of project

Improving mother and child care

Partners

PharmAccess, Hygeia, AAR, MicroEnsure

Medical care for mother & child

As part of the health care and quality improvement programs, Global Health Membership is supporting improvements in mother and child care. Due to insufficient assistance at birth, compromised hygiene in hospitals and poorly trained midwives and doctors, Africa has the highest percentage of mother and child mortality in the world. As diseases like malaria abound, babies and young children remain vulnerable. Many never celebrate their fifth birthday.

Global Health Membership supports programs that tackle these unnecessary losses. Health Insurance Fund’s programs are geared towards providing pregnant women with quality medical care before, during and after the birth of their child.

The health plans include:

Antenatal consultations
Educational information
Childbirth in a healthcare clinic
Follow-up and health checks for malaria and more.

It’s proven to be a great success. The program has trained more than 1,000 people, enabling them to provide quality care for almost 40,000 childbirth deliveries. Over 80,000 cases of malaria have been detected and treated on time. In addition, pregnant women came in for, on average, five antenatal visits per pregnancy.

Healthy delivery

For example, take 25-year-old Emily. She gave birth to healthy baby son Leon in Milimani Hospital in the east of Kenya last summer. This small hospital made many investments in recent years to improve its quality of care. As well as training its staff, they improved their birthing room and chambers, and expanded the number of beds. Milimani also purchased a new industrial laundry machine to ensure there are always clean sheets. Thanks to all these innovations, Emily was in good hands and could spend the first few days getting back her strength with Leon in a clean bed in one of the new rooms of the hospital.

Choose language

Choose language

Health insurance for farmers

Quality health care for all

Medical care for mother & child

Results.
Facts and figures
at a glance

268.428
people insured
in Nigeria, Tanzania,
Namibia and Kenya

2.489
clinics in
SafeCare program

2,012,833
patient visits to
the clinics

± 4x
antenatal visits
per pregnancy

66.645
childbirths in
clinics

8.317
medical staff
trained

Quality health care within reach

Choose language

Choose language

Health insurance for farmers

Quality health care for all

Medical care for mother & child

Results. Facts and figures at a glance

268.428 people insured in Nigeria, Tanzania, Namibia and Kenya

2.489 clinics inSafeCare program

2,012,833patient visits tothe clinics

± 4xantenatal visitsper pregnancy

66.645childbirths inclinics

8.317medical stafftrained

Quality health care within reach

Results.
Facts and figures
at a glance

268.428
people insured
in Nigeria, Tanzania,
Namibia and Kenya

2.489
clinics in
SafeCare program

2,012,833
patient visits to
the clinics

± 4x
antenatal visits
per pregnancy

66.645
childbirths in
clinics

8.317
medical staff
trained