How poor facilities threaten Kaduna health centre

It is observed that most people who patronise public facilities are those of the lower class who cannot afford treatment at private hospitals and also those who feel the primary health centres are closer to them.But unfortunately, many of these supposed close facilities which are supposed to be well structured and equipped to meet the […]

It is observed that most people who patronise public facilities are those of the lower class who cannot afford treatment at private hospitals and also those who feel the primary health centres are closer to them.
But unfortunately, many of these supposed close facilities which are supposed to be well structured and equipped to meet the yearning of the people at the grassroots are in a sorry state.
The Primary Health Care Centre at Trikania in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State is one of those centres seriously begging for government’s attention.
The outward look of the centre would not encourage nor attract anybody except an unconscious person or someone who needs urgent help and does not have an option at that moment.
The centre which looks like a residential room and parlour apartment from outside contains about five rooms with the ceilings falling off and the walls looking dirty and unkempt.
Apart from the tattered look of the facility both inside and outside, health workers in this centre, our reporter learnt contribute money to buy drugs which they dispense to patients that visit the centre.
This, we gathered has been going on for years in the health centre as a result of irregular supply of drugs from the local government.
Investigation revealed that sometimes, the centre gets anti-malaria drugs for pregnant women and children and hand gloves from the local government, which is never enough; therefore, the workers gather money to buy essential drugs including antibiotics, vitamin C and injections among others.
“The drugs we get from government we give freely to patients when they come but the ones we buy with our money, we sell to patients so that we can be able to replace the drugs when they get finished,” a source told our reporter.
Also, it was gathered that there is no water either from a tap, borehole nor well in the centre, which makes maintenance of the centre and the toilets very difficult.
In addition, there is no electricity nor generator to run the centre in case of power failure. “PHCN cut off our electricity a long time ago and we don’t have a generator. Also because there is no tap water nor well, we buy water on a daily basis into a big black rubber from which we fetch to wash our hands and do whatever we need to do with water but the truth is that, it is not convenient,”
“Due to the poor services, a lot of people do not patronise the health facility while the few people who do complain bitterly,”. A source in the facility told our reporter.
He added that there is shortage of manpower in the centre as well as inadequate chairs for women especially on immunisations days. “On immunisation day, which is every Tuesday, we get over 100 women and majority of them stand because we have only few benches,”
Our reporter also learnt that the Blood Pressure (BP) apparatus in the centre is in bad state. “We cannot check the patients’ BP except if one of us who has a personal apparatus brings it to the hospital, then we use it to test patients. We are trying to contribute money among ourselves to buy another one,” another source said.
Mrs Rose Michael, who sometimes patronises the hospital lamented that government has neglected the centre, which according to her is supposed to provide medical care to members of the community. “When you come here on immunisation days, you will see a lot of women standing outside waiting for those sitting on the bench inside to come out before they can go in. Also, the health workers are few and I think more workers need to be employed so that they can be efficient,” she said.
Another patient said the toilet in the centre is in a bad condition. “The centre has a pit toilet and because there is no water, maintaining it becomes difficult,” Musa Ibrahim said.
They both appealed to both the state and local government to give attention to primary health care centres across the state especially in remote areas so that they can serve the purpose for which they are established.
When contacted, the Executive Secretary of Kaduna State Primary Health Care Agency, Sufiyan M. Babale disclosed that the state government has plans to revamp all primary health care centres in the state.
According to him, there are over 1,000 PHCs in the state; noting that less than 70% of the facilities are fully functional.
 “At the state level, we have developed a road map towards revamping PHC services. What we intend to do is to invest massively in the area of infrastructure upgrade and also manpower because if we upgrade the facilities while the required manpower are not there, the facilities will rot away.
“So, we are not going to build new PHCs but revamp the existing ones. The existing PHCs are enough if we can make them fully functional.”
“All we need to do is to upgrade them into a modern PHC that would be able to provide minimum care for the public. Though, doing this will be capital intensive, but we are going to carry out the upgrading in phases until they are completed.
“After upgrading, we need to look at the demand and supply aspect because it is one thing to upgrade the centres and it is another thing to have the requisite equipment, manpower, supply in terms of drugs and consumables. Once, all these things are in place, the work becomes easy, what would be left is to mobilise communities to utilise the facilities,” he explained.
Babale also made known that some development partners have indicated interest to assist the state in achieving minimum world health care package per modern PHC. “Our intention is to have at least one modern PHC per political ward in the state,” he added.