Report on the Regional Key Stakeholders Meeting for the Implementation of CHUDATS in the North West Region

Following the series of activities engaged for the strategic planning phase in the implementation of CHUDATS within the North West Region, including but not limited to:

• Investigation and listing of all health facilities within the North West Region in collaboration with the North West Regional Delegation of Public Health (MINPUH);
• Identification and mapping of health facilities under the jurisdictional competence of the councils and the Region;
• Development of proposals for the implementation of CHUDATS within health centres, districts, and regional hospitals and submission to all 34 council administrations (mayors) and the Regional Executive Council (REC);
• Training of technical staff for the management of CHUDATS usage trainers through the implementation process;

On Tuesday 23 July 2024, in quest to seek more collaborative advice for obtaining a response to the REC’s transmission to the Regional Delegation of Public Health (MINPUH), CHUDATS regional coordination team is duly advised by the Regional Delegation to organise a stakeholder meeting such that all concerned parties may directly learn from what the project is offering. A date is agreed upon among CHUDATS management team members, and a meeting set for Thursday, 01 August 2024 in the hall of the North West Regional Assembly.

Meeting Aims and Participation

Aimed at presenting project CHUDATS for the purpose of enlightening and involving key stakeholders for its implementation within the North West Region, the coordination team hoped that the participants would become aware of their socio-legal responsibilities in partaking in the effective realisation of the project and would also be enlightened on ways or modalities for actively supporting the project.

The key stakeholders involved and invited were: the president of the Regional Executive Council (NWR), the Public Independent Conciliator (PIC) of the NWR, the NW Regional Delegate (MINPUH), the president of the United Councils and Cities of Cameroon (NWR), the mayor of Bamenda City Council (BCC), the provincial health coordinator of Catholic Health Services (Bamenda Archdiocese), the Director of Cameroon Baptist Convention (CBC) health services, and the medical officer in charge of the Presbyterian Health Centre (PHC Mankon). Except for the Regional Delegate (MINPUH), CBC, and the Mayor of BCC, the other invitees were present or represented and they made very active and vigorous contributions to the aim of the meeting. (See appendix section for invitations and attendance sheet)

Meeting Activities

According to the programme, after the introduction of participants, a welcome word was granted by the representative of the president of the REC. Failure of attendance and word of MINPUH – NWR, MAHSRA’s national coordinator for CHUDATS introduced the aim of the working session, followed by the presentations of the day:

1. Structural overview and projected implementation strategies for CHUDATS:

   

   This presentation indicated the naming parameters and development history of CHUDATS, its usage summary in personnel management, patient care and electronic health records management, health statistics and uniformity in information management, referral, counter-referral, and financing of user health facility concerns. It also shed light on how stakeholders are identified and can get involved, including methods or means of financing the implementation of the system within their health facilities. In addition, the presentation highlighted some usage benefits of the system with respect to easing healthcare administration duties in statistics gathering at local, regional, and national levels, as well as the management benefits for user health facilities, for patients, and for those willing to make donations to both needy patients and health facility growth projects.

2. Legal opportunity and stakeholder involvement concerns:

   

   This presentation projected, among other issues, the key stakeholders for the implementation of CHUDATS within the North West Region and their legal responsibilities to the same effect. Leaning on the country’s national development strategy 2020–2030 (NDS30) and the law N^o. 2019/024 of 24 December 2019 on the General Code of Regional and Local Authorities, the presentation pinpointed the legal involvement concerns of identified stakeholders and emphasised the need for supporting government policies duly inscribed within the convention framework N^o. 0017/CC/MINSANTE/MAHSRA of 03/11/2023. The presence of the PIC-NWR enlightened its institutional stake-holding concern with respect to assessing health employees’ issues and monitoring the involvement and functioning of regional and local administrations in CHUDATS.

3. Communication and system marketing:

   

   This focused on the modalities and ways of approaches for getting populations’ understanding of the usage of CHUDATS as well as the collaborative actions between stakeholders and MAHSRA for the same goal. It also highlighted the periodicity of actions that should precede the system installation and those that should assure its usage evaluation for consistency and sustainability.

4. CHUDATS components and opportunity applications: The participants enjoyed the opportunity of previewing the system components in a live demonstration through a login into the health unit management portal, a preview of the interconnecting mobile application, and the introduction of “Heal Coins”, digital currency used for donations and paying health service bills. This was followed by a data protection and security explanation opportunity to inform the participants of all measures put in place to ensure that data breaches are mitigated to the least of all considerations.

Closing Remarks and Recommendations

With deep enthusiasm and a desire to understand more, the participants introduced several questions, which were answered by the organising team members. Some of the questions were given in the form of recommendations that were already addressed within the system and/or that needed some minimal adjustment for the developer team.

Key among the recommendations were the closing remarks of the representative of the president of the REC in person of the Commissioner of Education who acknowledged and encouraged the importance of the project and their highlighted legal responsibilities, but furthered there was need for more detailed information on how the REC can support the project.

The representative and Deputy Secretary of United Councils and Cities of Cameroon – NWR, requested for the key message to take back to the mayors. This was also accompanied by the REC’s concerns for an in-region pilot implementation of CHUDATS. In this regard, the team did ascertain the participants of the Bamenda Regional Hospital’s involvement in the 2021 consultative process for the system’s development. However, for a better appraisal, MAHSRA’s team requested that the UCCC representative should remind all the 34 councils and their mayors to respond to the partnership request document that was earlier submitted to them in January 2024, and also strive to accompany MAHSRA in implementing the CHUDATS project within their various municipalities or council areas.

The representative of the Public Independent Conciliator for the NWR, indicated the role of the PIC with respect to their legal involvements in matters concerning workers, citizens and their council and regional administrations, as well as, how and when they can intervene in the project.

The other participants also requested for more detail costs with respect to the modalities involved in subscribing to the system and also data security measures in place to protect patients’ medical records. In response, a more detail manual of the system that answers the entire stake holding participants’ questions was produced and distributed to their respective offices.

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