Oyos remodelling of PHCs must be hastened, stakeholders urge

Nigeria - Stakeholders on primary health service delivery in Oyo State have called on the Oyo State government to follow through with the completion of its remodelling of 299 primary healthcare centres across the state to ensure improved access to health services at the grassroots.

The 299 primary health care centres were awarded for remodelling in March 2020 but work is at various stages only in 93. The other 206 health facilities pending are dilapidated and had an acute shortage of personnel, essential facilities and necessary drugs to discharge their responsibilities effectively.

Dr Joseph Kosoko, a dentist, speaking at the inaugural meeting of a Network on PHCs by Justice Development and Peace Commission (JDPC), Ibadan, with support from International Budget partnership, said that the disconnect between the PHCs and their resident communities had resulted in people seeking alternative medical services from doubtable sources with its attendant negative consequences.

Other stakeholders at the meeting included representatives of NGOs like Civil Coalition for Good Governance, Community Development Councils and Community Development Associations from Ibadan South East, Lagelu and Akinyele local government areas, frontline healthcare workers and the media.

According to Dr Kosoko, non-functioning PHCs have been a big challenge in Nigeria, but state governments like Oyo State can synergise with tertiary and secondary healthcare centres in their domains to improve on available manpower for health delivery at this level of healthcare.

The medical expert, noting that Nigeria is short of health workers for its rural areas, stated that with appropriate planning, the gaps in primary healthcare services could be met while indigent people at the grassroots would be given quality healthcare services.

Amusa Ladiran, representing Ibadan North Community Development Council, stated that proper follow-up of the remodelled PHCs by the community will require access by the community to the bill of quantity of the project and an increased oversight function by government engineers at the project sites.

JDPC’s Monitoring and Evaluation officer, Mrs. Joy Alonge, in a review of the 355 PHCs across Oyo State, said if the work on the remodelling of the 299 PHCs continues at their current pace, many might be left unattended to by 2023.

She declared, “Communities need to team up; it shouldn’t be ‘the government has approved it, let it do it’. Community members need to ensure that things are done exactly as indicated on the paper, thereby making them own the project and use the facility.”

At the meeting, the stakeholders agreed to forge a common front to champion the turnaround of PHC services in the state, show more interest in the PHCs as well as mobilise more stakeholders in support of PHC services for all.

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