Minister, others decry state of primary healthcare
From Okumephuna Chukwunwike,
Abuja
B ARELY a month after declaring that the nation's primary healthcare has totally collapsed, the Minister of Health, Prof. Eyitayo Lambo, again yesterday joined other stakeholders to call for its urgent revitalisation.
The stakeholders spoke during a two-day national consultative meeting on primary healthcare in Nigeria titled:" Revitalising Primary Healthcare in Nigeria," which opened yesterday in Abuja.
Lambo in his address, expressed dismay at the level of decay in the nation's primary healthcare, attributing it to the demise of former Health Minister Prof. Olikoye Ransome-Kuti.
He said, Nigerians overall health system performance was ranked 187th among the 191 member states of the world Health Organisation (WHO), "our maternal mortality rate is one of the highest in the world. All these are as a result of the collapse of primary healthcare in the country. The system worked well for a short period under the late Prof. Ransome-Kuti, but collapsed almost irretrievably soon after and thereby leaving the health sector in a state of coma".
He called for a concerted effort from all the stakeholders, including foreign donors, to correct the present state.
Toeing the same line, the Chairman of the Governing Board of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. A. Olu Sorungbe, recalled with pain the history of Nigeria's attempt at evolving an effective Primary Healthcare and its persistent failure.
He said: It is sad to note that in less than a decade, precisely between 1993 and 1999, we lost the tremendous achievement in PHC development. "Recognising the serious deterioration in the nation's health system and the central role of PHC, the present regime has repositioned the agency and mandated it to revitalise the nation's PHC system."
Saying that PHC today is characterised by inequality and multiple problems that reduce its efficiency and ability to address common diseases, he called for genuine efforts to reverse the trend.
Contributing, the Executive Director of the NPHCDA, said his agency organised the meeting to revitalise the ailing primary health sector.
His words: "The Minister of Health, Prof. Lambo since assuming office, has initiated processes of consultations and consensus-building for health sector reform in Nigeria. It is in furtherance to this and the recommendations of the December 2003 meeting of the national council on health that the Honourable Minister directed the NPHCDA to constitute a technical committee of public health experts to produce a draft blue print on the revitalisation of PHC for consideration by the stakeholders at this meeting."
Prof. Layi Erinosho of the Social Science Academy of Nigeria in his contribution also lamented the glaring decay in the nation's healthcare system, especially the PHC.
According to him: "Everyone, including quite a significant number among the managers of the system is dissatisfied with the state of things. It is also self-evident that tinkering with the system will not solve the problems underlying healthcare delivery in Nigeria. Rather, what is required are far-sighted and bold initiatives that would lead to total reorganisation of the system."
He added that implementation of PHC was weakened because an institutional framework has not been established to harness all programmes of established has not been allowed to function as it should.
He therefore called for the promulgation of a national health Act that will outline the responsibilities of all the tiers of government and in primary healthcare.
The two-day consultative meeting which ends today, is among other things, claimed at providing stakeholders the opportunity to review and examine PHC in Nigeria, identify factors militating against its implementation and explore options for effective PHC programme in Nigeria.
