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A Civil Society Organisation (CSO), ONE Campaign, in partnership with National Advocates for Health, Nigeria Health Watch, and the Public & Private Development Centre (PPDC), has announced plans to launch a new report on the state of primary healthcare service delivery in Nigeria.
The organisation, in a statement issued on Wednesday, said this will be done through a comprehensive analysis of the status of implementation of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) across states in Nigeria.
The Executive Director of ONE Campaign’s for Africa, Edwin Ikhuoria, said the report aims at stimulating interest from critical stakeholders to improve the overall Primary HealthCare (PHC) delivery in Nigeria.
Mr Ikhuoria said PHC is the cornerstone of health systems resilience and its strength is essential to preparing for future pandemics.
“It has been eight years since the National Health Act was passed and four years since the BHCPF was activated in Nigeria to address the shortage of PHC services, yet the BHCPF’s utilisation and implementation remain below expectations,” he said.
He said this exacerbates Nigeria’s vulnerability, and unless it is addressed, the country will remain open to future shocks of unprecedented magnitude.
About the report
The report, “The state of Primary Healthcare service delivery in Nigeria” will be released in Abuja on July 19 2022 in the presence of critical policymakers and a broad spectrum of health advocates and campaigners.
ONE campaign said the report provides a comprehensive assessment of the implementation of BHCPF, ranks health system performance across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) using a standard group of health systems indicators, and recommends pathways to increase utilisation of the BHCPF at the state level.
Stanley Achonu, Country Director for Nigeria at the ONE Campaign, said the report aims to ignite action amongst stakeholders and impact the needed change and increase access to PHC services across Nigeria.
Mr Achonu said the conclusions of this study will spur more action to improve health care in all 36 states and the FCT.
“Despite the difficulties, it is not impossible for states to improve their health outcomes. Nigerians’ access to and use of health care will be greatly improved with a firm commitment and swift action from all relevant parties,” he said.
A timely step
Primary healthcare is a level at which non-emergency, preventative health issues should be managed. It is meant to provide services to the majority of people based on need, without geographical, social, or financial barriers.
Unfortunately, only about 20 per cent of PHC facilities across Nigeria are fully functional. The rest cannot provide essential healthcare services.
Some PHCs are faced with lot of problems, including poor distribution of health workers, poor quality of health care services, poor infrastructure, and lack of supply of essential drugs.
The inability of PHC centres to provide basic medical services to people especially at the rural areas, has increased the influx of patients to secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities. This has led to long queues in these hospitals and worsen patient experiences.
The Managing Director of Nigeria Health Watch, Vivianne Ihekweazu, said there has been collaborations with ONE and other partners to support this important assessment of States Primary Healthcare provision.
Mrs Ihekweazu said the organisation is excited about putting this report in the public domain to serve as essential evidence for advocacy.
In her remarks, Akubuo Nonye, Programme Manager at PPDC noted that fixing Nigeria’s healthcare system today is critical, as access to foreign medical care is useless without a stable state of health in Nigeria.
About ONE
ONE is a campaigning and advocacy organisation of over Nine million people taking action to end extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa.
Nigeria accounts for 2.8 million of the organisation’s supporters. Not politically partisan, the organisation raise public awareness and press political leaders to combat AIDS and preventable diseases, increase investments in agriculture and nutrition, and demand greater transparency in poverty-fighting programmes.
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