The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Mohammed Pate, has said reliable data is essential to the implementation of the universal health coverage embarked upon by the Federal Government.

He said the need to use reliable data had placed high expectation on the National Health Management Information System to provide data to inform government on how far and how well the government was meeting the objectives of the programme.

Pate was represented by the Chief Medical Director, University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Prof. Abdulwaheed Olatinwo, at the 2012 Health Data Producers and Users workshop in Ilorin on Tuesday.

The workshop was titled, 'Reliable health information for planning'. The Minister said government was determined to correct the impression that health information system in Nigeria had not been accorded its rightful place.

He urged government at all levels to ensure proper documentation and reporting of services rendered at health facilities to ensure the realisation of government’s plan to improve the health status of Nigerians even through the Federal Government’s subsidy reinvestment empowerment programme.

Pate said in realisation of the challenges of generating reliable health data in Nigeria, the Federal Government with the support of its development partners would soon commence the review of the NHMIS which was first approved in 1989 and revised in 2006.

He added that the review was expected to address the challenges of health data management in Nigeria.

According to him, the Federal Government had also adopted a single platform for capturing health data in Nigeria to enhance data exchange and management in the country.

The Director, Health Planning Research and Statistics, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Sade Yemi-Esan, said the health data producers and users summit was aimed at developing a road map for making NHMIS responsive to the health data needs of the country.

Kwara State Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Abdul Kayode, said the state had started taking giant strides in health care development. He stated that the state, in the nearest future, would become a hub of qualitative health care delivery in Nigeria especially when facilities like the Kwara State Advanced Diagnostic Centre begin operation.

He added that the state had expanded the Community Health Insurance Scheme across the three senatorial districts of the state.