The NHIF calls for updating the health map and implementing population surveys
Port Sudan /The Citizen
The meeting of branch managers of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), headed by Dr. Siddiq Al-Tayeb Wahballah, Acting Director General, and with the participation of branch managers and directors of specialized departments, discussed the status of implementing the recommendations of the six-party committee between the Fund and the Zakat Bureau regarding the inventory and updating of data of poor families sponsored through the Office, and re-targeting them. The meeting also addressed the efforts of the states to restore the provision of health services in accordance with federal guidelines.
The meeting also stressed the importance of periodic reports on the status of the implementation of the partnership with the Zakat Bureau, and the establishment of a forum for population coverage at the branch level to promote comprehensive coverage projects.
The Director General of the Fund in charge renewed the interest of the Fund’s presidency in achieving service and population coverage in accordance with the 2025 plan, praising the contribution of the Zakat Bureau in providing social protection for vulnerable segments, and Dr. Wahb Allah stressed the provision of resources to implement the expansion of medical services by restoring service in family health units, by more than 90% and returning to pre-war service, calling for updating the medical map in order to achieve the overall goals of comprehensive coverage.
The Director of Financial and Administrative Affairs headed by the NHIF, Dr. Muhammad Abu Al-Qasim, addressed the position of the surveys and acknowledged that the war affected the survey and the results of the coverage, and also reviewed the position of paying the contributions of poor families funded through the Zakat Bureau, pointing to the Zakat Bureau’s coverage of 491 thousand families and increased by the end of 2023 The Federal Zakat Bureau sponsored 283.438 families, while 167.900 families were sponsored through the Bureau in the states, calling for a review of the methodology used in updating data for families
Dr. Abu Al-Qasim said that the states vary in response to data review methodologies, calling on the Fund’s branches to follow a methodology in updating data and retargeting.
The Director of Finance at the ( NHIF ), Abdullah Al-Bakhit, stated that the Zakat Bureau is the second financier of the Fund after the Ministry of Finance, calling on the Fund’s presidency to adopt a forum for population coverage to stop the challenges of achieving coverage, accuracy and reliability of data, and also appealed to strengthen the role of the media to target the largest number of families in the future.
It is worth noting that the branch managers participating in the forum presented reports explaining the status of updating data and retargeting at the level of administrative units in the states, as well as the challenges facing the project and the position of collecting arrears to cover the segments.