Health Policy Research Group at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, says it would collaborate with journalists to communicate its research findings to policymakers in order to improve healthcare delivery.
The partnership entails using media houses to showcase quality evidence from health policy and systems research to policymakers and the public as part of efforts to improve the delivery of health services to people in rural areas.
HPRG, which is based at the College of Medicine, UNN, draws from the experiences of researchers across several fields in health, social, and environmental sciences through Community-Led Responsive and Effective Urban Health Systems – CHORUS PROJECT.
CHORUS is a Consortium that brings together health systems experts from Africa, Asia, and Europe, with funding from the Medical Research Council.
Speaking during the “Research-Media Boot Camp” in Enugu, the HPRG Coordinator, Prof. Obinna Onwujekwe, said the partnership would provide linkage and framework between researchers and journalists in reporting health issues.
He said coming together would give journalists more understanding of the importance of research evidence in strengthening governance and facilitating efficient health service delivery.
According to him, such collaboration will further enable researchers to know how to communicate with journalists and build sustainable relationships for the appreciation and use of research.
Prof. Onwujekwe explained that HPRG was on a 5-year study of health service delivery in urban areas and to know how they can be mainstreamed into the formal health system for quality control reasons.
He also said that the booth camp would enable media houses to put research findings into use in such a manner that common people can understand, adding that policymakers would pay more attention to health service delivery when journalists report the research findings more accurately.
Prof. Onwujekwe, who is a lecturer in Health Administration and Management and a professor of Health Economics, noted that urban health studies have been going on for decades.
He said the project, which began about three years ago, focused on Enugu and Anambra states, with recent spread into Rivers and Abia States.
Prof. Onwujekwe revealed that the group identified four areas respectively in Enugu and Onitsha in Anambra State as study sites.
“There are more slums in these states, but we decided to select eight as we cannot work in all the slums.
“We took major slums after research sampling and we want to find out the healthcare services provided in the slums, linkages that exist as well as problems they have in accessing health service,” he said.
The professor further noted that the research would help to improve and make health services better for people living in slums.
While urging the government to do more for people living in slums, Onwujekwe said politicians should not only campaign there during elections but must try to pay attention to their health needs.
“When the media inform people, they will be able to demand for better healthcare service delivery when they come during campaigns,” he added.
Speaking on the topic titled, ‘The Act/Practice on Journalistic Writing”, Alex Enebeli, a Senior Correspondent with the News Agency of Nigeria, tasked the researchers on the need to be consistent and objective throughout.
He said it is important for factual and accurate information to emanate from them so that members of the public, especially policymakers can trust their research findings.
Presenting a paper on ‘Reporting For Corruption in Health Sector’, an editor from the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, Victoria Bamas, said there are lots of corruption going on in the health sector.
She highlighted areas where corruption takes place in the health sector, noting that they include during procurement processes, through bribery and kickbacks, and in the sales of drugs meant to be free, among others.
Others, she noted, are workers’ attitude to work, poor service delivery, medical malpractice, negligence, fraud and falsification of medical documents.
(NAN)
Leave a Reply