Health worker shortage hits crisis mode—and dealing blows to women, children
Hauwa Lassa worked 35 years as a nurse and midwife. Her retirement package is a camp for displaced people on the outskirts of Maiduguri. In the three states worst hit by the Boko Haram violence in its eight year, health facilities have been damaged and health workers have fled. Estimates suggest nearly 40% of health […]
Hauwa Lassa worked 35 years as a nurse and midwife. Her retirement package is a camp for displaced people on the outskirts of Maiduguri.
In the three states worst hit by the Boko Haram violence in its eight year, health facilities have been damaged and health workers have fled.
Estimates suggest nearly 40% of health facilities have been destroyed in the violence, and skilled health workers have had to leave the area entirely.
The result is tents put up for health care, buildings undergoing reconstruction—and an alarming shortage of skilled workforce.
“I have been working in the field of maternal health in this country for more than 35 years,” Lassa say.
“It is now with this crisis going on that the women need support. So I decided to come back to the health centre and help.”
Some 190km away in Biu, Mdapilawa Yatzubu, works in a health centre with a specific challenge: she and her colleagues must take on average 150 deliveries a month.
She is familiar with complications to expect. Some women bleed a lot, others show signs of hypertension. Some get seizures during or after giving birth, a condition called eclampsia; others pick up a range of infections, called sepsis.
“If the women have complications that we cannot manage, we refer them to the general hospital,” says Yatzubu.
Yatzubu and Lassa are a few hundreds of health workers across the north that women may see in their lifetime. They are becoming the bedrock of saving the lives of women and girls affected by conflict in the region.
Millions may never see a gynaecologist in their lifetime.
For every 100,000 Nigerians, there are 100 nurses, or 68 midwives or 19 community health extension workers, says NPHCDA
 boasts 1,054 members. At least 46% of them work in Lagos and Ibadan alone, according to Brian-D Adinma, a former president of the society.</p> <p>Kano is physically removed from the north east conflict but nine out of every 10 OBGYNs there work in the Bayero University Teaching Hospital or in private practice.</p> <p>The lone teaching hospital in Sokoto is attached to Usmanu Danfodiyo University and has a share of OBGYNs since it opened in 1989. It has more than 100 consultants, 400 resident doctors and 750 nurses, at last count, according to its administrators.</p> <p>In 2015, SOGON spoke of plans for its members to volunteer at primary health centres even while working in inner-city tertiary hospitals—in efforts to bridge the gap in access to skilled health workers.</p> <p>But there still are less than two doctors for every 1,000 population, estimates suggest.</p> <p>That’s around 30 doctors for every 100,000 Nigerians, according to the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, which coordinates primary health services across over 30,000 centres.</p> <p>For every 100,000 Nigerians, there are 100 nurses, or 68 midwives or 19 community health extension workers, said Nneka Onwu, director of community health services at NPHCDA.</p> <p>The shortage of heath workforce ranks Nigeria seventh among countries of health worker crisis. Across Africa, the shortage is 7.2 million, and is predicted to rise to 12.9 million by 2035.</p> <p>Critics point to differing conditions of service from primary to secondary and tertiary health care—and between state and federal civil service.</p> <p>“Politicians don’t understand that buildings don’t make services or hospitals,” says Emmanuel Otolorin, country director of Jhipego, on a panel at SOGON’s 51st scientific conference in Sokoto.</p> <p>“Salary difference is so huge, people are gravitating toward federal,” continues.</p> <p>“In teaching hospitals, you can disengage 50% [of staff] and not feel the difference. Some people go around doing nothing. They spend time in their private clinic and are first to go on strike when salaries aren’t paid.”</p> <p><img loading=)