Anambra State Health Commissioner, Dr Vincent Okpala says the ongoing training on data analysis and organised collaboration with the State Government and EU/WHO will help to improve the health sector of the state.Dr Okpala said this during the training/workshop on Data Analysis and Use, which kicked-off on Aug. 3 to end on Aug. 18 in Awka.The commissioner noted that the state had a health system strengthening project with WHP as the implementing partner and EU as the funding partners.He explained that data as the life of healthcare was very important and one of the basic building blocks of the healthcare system and crucial in decision-making.
The workshop is to train our Programme Officers, Monitoring and Evaluation Officers from state and local government levels to learn how to manage and analyse data.We want them to be able to speak the language of our partners; language of the leadership in health and understanding how this work will help them to communicate statistically.’’He observed that participants were excited at the training because they had learnt new things that people actually pay money to learn outside the state but this particular one happened here and it was free of charge.
According to him, our expectation is that through proper analysis of data they will help to project our state in good light as well as work as a team in their offices.Things will no longer be the same in the ministry because when you’re trained you must utilise the training.
We are hoping to see revival of periodic data meetings at state and local government levels, hoping that eventually we will start having statistical bulletins from our programmes.’’The commissioner commended EU/WHO for funding the programme and for their support toward improving the healthcare system of the state.Head, Planning, Research and Statistics, Mrs Edith Nwachukwu said that the training was split into Batches A, B, C and participants — Programme managers, Monitoring and Evaluation Officers and the Partners.
Mrs Nwachukwu explained that participants were trained on the following:Introduction to the principles of data management as the foundation for the production of quality data and how to explore the features of pivot tables in Microsoft Excel in order to enhance outputs.Introduction to data entry and basic variant analysis in SPSS Statistics, participants were positioned to independently produce statistics bulletin and others.
She noted the importance of the training to the ministry, emphasising that the ministry could not do without proper and accurate analysis of data in the day to day activities.So, there is a need to analyse data as they come in and participants are expected to perform optimally because they have passed through a rigorous training on data analysis and use.
Since they are the people who manage health information, this training will help them to interpret and analyse the data they receive on a daily basis in order to be informed in the decision making process.
Mrs Nwachukwu said that they look forward to participants presenting their data in a way that even a layman would look at the data and be able to analyse and to interpret them.
