Sena Biya, 23, was one of the students who graduated last week from Jimma University Main Campus, Department of Pharmacy. She received her first degree in Pharmacy.
The writer of this piece had an opportunity to attend the graduation program held in Jimma Town and to have a short stay with Sena.
As to Sena, the health sector is one of the most important sectors that the government is investing immensely. As a result, the efforts have borne fruit and many productive achievements are recorded. However, as the demand is high, strengthening the performance should be the focus of the new government, she underlined.
According to her, the new government should give due emphasis in further strengthening the sector- human capital both in skill and professionalism, as well as build health facilities that could treat acute and severe cases including cancer, kidney as well as gynecology at the national level.
“Personally, I comprehend the efforts exerted to improve the health system and witnessed the improvements gained so far. The progresses though are encouraging; there are still activities to be carried out and more gaps to be bridged in order to modernize the service thereby meet publics’ expectation.”
According to Sena, even if good trends are observed, the country is still facing a triple burden of diseases consisting of communicable and non-communicable diseases, and injuries. Such burdens coupled with the new health threats and the ever increasing demand urge the government to be increasingly focused on addressing equity in access to health care, quality in health services provision, strengthening community engagement and ownership in health decision-making and management.
“Access to modern health care is limited; as well skilled professionals are not employed based on merits, so in my understanding, the new government should review the performance of each health facility to human capital in line with set national standards.”
She also shared her reaction to the engagement of development partners in the health sector. Involving the private sector and fostering partnerships with development partners is fundamental to add value in the sector, introduce new technology, provide state-of-the-art services and above all for broader vision rather than short term interests.
She underlined that to improve the health sector, the prime responsibilities should be using own resources and plans.
The new government should enhance the participation of private sector through putting reasonable incentives, and let them operate in the areas where the demand is high.
Likewise working with the development partners should be framed in line with the demand on the ground; the communities they are operating in and the national health sector plan of the country, she opined.
BY MENGISETAB TESHOME
ETHIOPIAN HERALD 29 SEPTEMBER 2021
