Communities in Benue’s hinterland lack access to healthcare

Seven months ago, Oneh Michael went into labour at midnight in her Obotu village located about two kilometres away from the nearest clinic in a rural town of Ogoli in Otukpo Local Government Area of Benue State. Her husband, Michael, made frantic efforts that night to move his wife to the closest clinic at Ogoli […]

Seven months ago, Oneh Michael went into labour at midnight in her Obotu village located about two kilometres away from the nearest clinic in a rural town of Ogoli in Otukpo Local Government Area of Benue State.

Her husband, Michael, made frantic efforts that night to move his wife to the closest clinic at Ogoli but there was no means of transportation to do so except if the woman would walk the distance.

“Looking at her situation, I felt helpless because there was no way she could walk for two kilometres while in labour,” Michael said.

The only option left for him was to seek the assistance of a traditional birth attendant within his village without any delay.

Michael added that the traditional birth attendant saved the day as she quickly brought her expertise to bear and before long his already tired pregnant wife was delivered of a son.

There are many other women like Michael’s wife who had stories about the difficulties they faced in birthing their children or emergency health issues in Obotu village and other rural settings in the state.

At times, it is not due to the absence of a health facility in their villages but the absolute abandonment or lack of caregivers at the primary health care centres built and equipped by the federal government just like the case of Obotu village.

It’s a similar situation in Edikwu-Icho community of Apa Local Government Area of the state where the primary health care facility nearing completion under the 2013 MDGs intervention had long been abandoned with no hope of the contractors returning to site.

 

Edikwu Icho according to the inhabitants is made up of 15 villages and the establishment of the hospital was supposed to bring great relief to the people who usually travel to Ugbokpo, the headquarters of Apa or Otukpo town for medical attention.

Chairman of Apa LGA, Ameh Akoche, said the PHC project in Edikwu Icho has been abandoned for many years. “We have been crying for its completion to no avail. It’s still in the same shape of abandonment and up till now, nothing appreciable has been done about the project.”

As for the Obotu PHC, now under locks, the facility was established in the year 2000 and functioned for approximately three years before its abandonment for lack of medical personnel to attend to patients with even the slightest ailments.

For lack of staff, the Obotu Primary Healthcare Centre could not continue to function, says Felicia Ben who had her first child in the facility when it became operational.

Ben said that a doctor serving under the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) was on ground then alongside few workers who cared for patients and assisted pregnant women during delivery.

“It was a good development for the villagers to have access to affordable healthcare closest to them. Initially, too, surgeries were carried out in the facility by qualified doctors who visited occasionally,” she added.

Corroborating her, Michael posited that “the hospital functioned for just awhile. No doctor was posted here, there was no single nurse or any other health professional to attend to patient as time went on.

“Along the line, it became deserted, so it was put under lock and key. As you can see, people now farm around the clinic.

“We desperately want this project to be revived. The village authority had made several appeals to concerned authorities to resuscitate the healthcare but to no avail.”

Apart from Michael, inhabitants of Obotu village and surrounding vicinities are in dire need of the functionality of the hospital to cater for at least their minor ailments even with the presence of a nurse.

The story is not also different at the PHC located in Tse Vanger, Mbakume Shough Yonov of Gwer East LGA which was built in 2013 but not put to proper use for the benefits of the locals.

Locals said the facility hadn’t been connected to electricity neither equipment installed, and so they still travel to Ikpayongo – the nearest settlement, where they can access a medical facility.

A local in Tse Vanger who declined his name on print, said the political will of relevant government agencies to build, equip and locate health facilities, especially at an affordable rate for the poor rural dwellers cannot be overemphasized as he urged them to walk their talk.

Council chairman of Gwer East, Terwase Ortsega, told our correspondent that the project though completed had however not been equipped or handed over to the local government for use.

“It’s only the structure that is ready but it’s until equipped, then it will be handed over to the local government. I can’t say when the delay in handing it to the LG will be over, that lies with the contractor who has not completed his contractual terms. The contractor is to complete his job and equip the facility before handing it over to the LG,” Ortsega said.

Most rural communities in the state are faced with the same challenge of little or no access at all to primary healthcare which had become an impediment to especially the fight against maternal and child mortality – the twin evil that has bedevilled the state from time immemorial.

It is also a challenge for the rural folks who usually don’t report ailments threatening their wellbeing at the initial stage until it becomes so bad because of distance and lack of transport.

Beeka Emmanuel, a State Health Educator at the Benue State Primary Health Care Board (PHCB) in Makurdi, said staffing was still a big problem in making the PHCs work effectively.

“There are no staff. In some cases, the health services are dilapidated while some staff have retired and are not replaced. There are areas where security challenges have forced staff away.”

He however added that measures are adequately in place to bridge any gap as everything concerning health is well structured in the state so that at the end of every month, a report is expected from all facilities.

Emmanuel said such reports are evaluated to enable the Board know the state’s health challenges, adding that it was the method used to discover the outbreak of measles in over 17 LGAs of the state in recent times.

Also, the Director of Community Health Service at the PHCB, Joshua Ihiom, opined that the board might not yet be aware of some challenges facing the health facilities in the rural environs of the state except they were reported by the LG directors in charge.   

He said, “The board is aware that it is lacking staff to cover all the facilities in the state. The board generally is experiencing shortage of staff, it might be the reason why some of the facilities are under lock, but I will confirm from the directors at the local government level.

“We advise that facilities shouldn’t be completely shut down because of staff; they can manage the few ones they have so that services can still continue in these areas.  It could be shut because of crisis in the areas or they posted staff who refused to go there; that’s what I will find out. There are crisis some areas and we would not advise our staff to be posted there until the crisis are resolved.”

Meanwhile, the State Commissioner of Health and Human Services, Dr Joseph Ngbea, said that the state government was working progressively to overcome the challenges of shortage of staff.

“We have declared health personnel’s employment in the state as an emergency. That’s foremost, then we are going to employ staff to man the primary health care services. There are about 277; right now, I have ordered the Executive Secretary (PHCB) to take a stock to know the total number of staff on ground to look at vis-vis those that are not on ground but still collecting salaries in PHC.

“We will buffer it up by employment. You know the agency was set up not long ago by Governor Samuel Ortom, we are working and now we have a stereotype of how primary health care should look like in Benue. We just came back from PHC summit and we have gotten buildings of primary health care donated by agencies across the country. We have close to over 200 so we have been lobbying to have more in Benue and once we get them, we will distribute it across the three senatorial districts of the state.

“After we get the statistics of number of people currently working, we will employ and then, deploy them to facilities lacking personnel. We need to have a doctor, a nurse and then we need to have CHEW. I have sent to them. In the case of doctors, we are doing a bond scheme and we are going to have a lot of doctors serving on bond scheme. The plan is to be sending them to primary health care services so that when you go there, you will see a doctor. That’s what is done in Rivers State and we want to do it in Benue State which would go a long way to help us.

“On the abandoned projects, we will have to go to the House Committee on Health (House of Assembly); we have sent a memo to them already so they will call those contractors to come. It’s not just primary health care but even in some General Hospitals. I’m aware of one in Obagaji, another in Okpoga and one other in Adikpo as well as in Vandekiya. We gave them contracts that they have abandoned, and we are going through to call them. We have even paid 90 percent for some of such projects,” the health commissioner maintained.