In Ouagadougou, the Minister of Health presided over the closing ceremony of the first ordinary session of the Comité d’orientation et de suivi de la gratuité des soins et du financement de la santé. The technicians spent two days examining the efficiency of free healthcare in Burkina Faso.
After eight years of free health careIn order to make the measure more efficient, the Ministry of Health and four other ministerial departments have set up a joint committee, the Comité d’Orientation et de Suivi de la Gratité des Soins et du Financement de la Santé (COS_GFS).
For the first time, this committee met on March 28 and 29, 2024. under the aegis of the Technical Secretariat for Health Financing Reforms, with the objectives of adopting draft documents for consideration by committee members, briefing members on the key functions of health financing in achieving universal health coverage, and formulating recommendations.
According to the Minister of Health and Public Hygiene, Dr Lucien KARGOUGOU, this session showed that the digitization of the free care sheet is well underway. Projections made by the technicians reveal that the digitization of the care sheet could contribute to a drastic reduction in the bill linked to free care.
“Since its implementation, the State budget has spent an average of 28 to 30 billion CFA francs on its implementation. But with the implementation of the electronic care sheet, we expect to reduce this bill to around 20 to 21 billion. This should enable us to extend the range of free healthcare services”. Dr Lucien KARGOUGOU.
COS_GFS is a multi-sectoral committee comprising five (05) ministerial departments. Set up in July 2023, it aims to promote structural reforms and ensure appropriate monitoring of free healthcare and healthcare financing in Burkina Faso.
