The Kwara State Government has said low percentage of residents have access to primary healthcare in the state.
The Commissioner for Health, Dr Raji Rasaki, disclosed this during a one-day town hall meeting on primary healthcare delivery in the North West/North Central zones in Nigeria held in Ilorin, Kwara State capital.
The event was organized by Fridabs Solacebase communications in partnership with Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism and supported by MacArthur Foundation.
Themed rethinking rural healthcare, building a safer community, the meeting was attended by civil society organizations, healthcare workers, media, policy makers and implementers.
According to the commissioner, “Despite the intervention of the government, most people in the state are not accessing primary healthcare.
“This is sad and we are not happy about this as the percentage of people accessing it is very low. In some PHCs, we bought close to N200,000 worth of drugs but have to redistribute it because the people are not coming. And yet some of the structures have been renovated and equipped.
“We are begging the media to please assist in this direction by helping to sensitise the community for more integration”, the commissioner who was represented by Mrs Oyeyipo Adebisi noted.
In his remarks, Executive Director of Fridabs Solacebase communications, Mallam Abdullateef Abubakar Jos, said that inadequate skilled staffing and lack of essential drugs are some of the other factors discouraging access to primary health care centres in the country.
He said “Most of our health challenges are being taken to tertiary institutions. There are supposed to be referral cases. And you can’t blame the people because most of the primary health care centres are not working”.
He further called on the present Kwara state government to make needed change against deplorable conditions of primary health care it met on ground to ensure provision of qualitative health care services, health education and access to primary health care services to people.
Also speaking, the executive director of the Kwara state Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Nusirat Elelu, said there is huge decay in the PHC sector in the country.
She said there were over 600 PHCs in serious state of disrepair when they came in adding that “If we do 100 yearly, there will still be a huge gap to fill in this era of overstretched resources”.
Dr. Elelu said the present administration had carried out holistic overview of the sector which led to repair works, provision of drugs and staff recruitments to improve the situation across the state.
Source: Daily Trust
