The Minister of Health and Sanitation, Dr. Alpha Wurie has on Monday October 5, 2020, justified Le182, 306.8 billion recurring budget requested by his Ministry for the financial year 2021.
The Health Minister, while speaking in the conference hall at the budget hearing of the Ministry of Finance in Freetown, said that if Sierra Leone as a nation fails to invest in health every other sector will be affected.
The Budget Ceiling (Recurrent Expenditure) of the Ministry of Health is Le 60,451.1 billion.
Dr Wurie encouraged the Ministry of Finance to increase budgetary allocation to his Ministry.
“The Ministry is linked with sanitation and by extension the environment, water resources (WASH). We just witness the outbreak of COVID-19 and everything stops; no more schooling, dress code changed, the tourism sector affected among others,” he said.
He said the Ministry of Health will be working with the Ministry of Finance to rehabilitate every government hospitals in the country over the period of 2021 and 2022, and that the Ministry of Health is planning on bringing certain things in for the first time; like Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Emergency Care Unit, mortuary service at district level among others.
The Ministry of Health and Sanitation’s proposed 2021 deliverables are the implementation of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) pilot, expand and improve the Free Health Care Initiative, implement the school health program; pilot a Performance-Based Financing scheme; launch the health financing strategy, including plans for national health insurance schemes; continue decentralization of Human Resource management through rolling out integrated HR Information System to all districts; scale-up, restore following the COVID-19 pandemic and sustain delivery of materials, child and adolescents services; electronic tracing of pregnant women; and pilot electronic medical records in hospitals.
The Director Budget in the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Tasima Jah, reminded the Ministry of Health that they should tailor their 2021 budget to deliverables rather than recurrent spending.
By Sallieu S. Kanu
7/10/2020