Minister of State for Health, Dr. Mohammed Ali Pate, Monday said the Federal Government had finalised arrangement to begin a comprehensive review of its National Policy on Health Management Information System (HMIS).

This, he said, would go a long way in improving the health care delivery system across the 36 states of the federation.

Pate, who disclosed this in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, at a meeting of Health Data Producers' and Users (HDPU) in Ilorin, said the Federal Ministry of Health had communicated the need for the review exercise to the various states' Ministries of Health and their agencies to complement the efforts of the Federal Government in the health sector.

The HMIS was first approved in 1989 and revised in the year 2006.

According to him, "The exercise is aimed at improving health needs of Nigerians and would include integration of data collection from non-governmental health facilities acclaimed to be responsible for substantial percentage of health service delivery in Nigeria."

The minister, who was represented by the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), Professor Abdulwaheed Olatinwo, at the event, which was attended by states' Commissioners for Health across the 36 states and Abuja, promised better days ahead for health personnel, who he described as the pivot of the ministry.

"My ministry is taking all necessary steps to ensure that the NHMIS is positioned to provide relevant health information needs for evidenced based decision making and management as well as for research. States ministry of health and its agencies are expected to be active in the implementation of the NHMIS in their respective states by ensuring that relevant staff are deployed, trained and retained in the NHMIS unit.

"To this end the NHMIS branch of the Federal Ministry of health in collaboration with states' Ministry of Health and development partners have compiled the list of registered health facilities in Nigeria. All listed health facilities have been assigned a unique code (identifier)," he said.

Pate thanked the relevant agencies of the United Nations for their supports for the NHMI in Nigeria, noting that such efforts would not be allowed to be futile if Nigeria expects to compete favourably in the health sector with other developing countries of the world.

Declaring the event open, Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, represented by his Health Commissioner, Mr. Kayode Issa, said the NHMI objectives tallied with that of the state's Ministry of Health, especially in the area of provision of quality health for the people of the state.

Ahmed, while stressing the importance of quality health system under democracy, promised the feasibility of making the health system available to the people of the state within a distance of 500 metres from one health institution to another.

Besides, he disclosed the readiness of the state government to inaugurate before the end of this year, five renovated General Hospitals spread across the three Senatorial districts of the state.