By Hassan Zaggi
The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Dr. Faisal Shuiab, has lamented that hundreds of thousands of Nigerians die annually from preventable causes due to lack of access to primary health care services.
He disclosed this at a media briefing to announce the formal launch of a new programme-Transform, aimed at drastically improving and expanding primary health care services across the country.
The programme is part of the bigger National PHC Summit which will be held later this month. .
The programme, he explained, “ is called Re-imagining PHC, will be implemented by a historic coalition of private sector leaders, international agencies, and government.”
This transformative program, he said, is focused on primary health care, because it is the backbone of our entire health system.
He regretted that: “Hundreds of thousands of Nigerians die each year from treatable, preventable causes – due to a lack of adequate or accessible primary health care services.
“We need to end this, we need to begin making radical changes, now.
“We will launch this programme, officially, at the Primary Health Care Summit to be held on March 24 and 25 in Abuja.”
While explaining how the Re-imagining PHC plans to transform the country’s health system, he said: “Working with States and Local Government Areas, we will pool resources and commitments toward practical, high-impact interventions across all aspects of PHC delivery.
“Traditionally, public health funding has targeted specific threats such as polio, malaria or HIV/AIDS, at the expense of a wide range of chronic illnesses and health wellbeing.
“The narrow approach to problem solving has led us to where we are now: with some of the worst, most tragic health statistics in the world. We need to work holistically.
“We will invest in building up our failing PHC system so that it can treat infectious diseases as well as address chronic illness; prevention, diagnosis and referral; maternal and child-care; and community wellness.
“This will mean investing in primary health care, human resources and infrastructure across the country and we will restore health centers; ensure provision of general, laboratory, clinic and personnel equipment; ensure the availability of quality drugs; procure ambulances for accessibility; and, last but certainly not least: we will train and employ quality nurses, midwives, clinical staff and non-clinical staff at health centers across Nigeria.”
Shuaib noted that the problems a lack of primary health care cause are staggering, stressing that they dwarf the impact of COVID-19 on Nigeria’s population.
He revealed that 128 of every 1,000 children under 5 in Nigeria die and 20% of global maternal deaths happen in Nigeria, noting that “it’s heart breaking, and we must treat it as the emergency it is.”
Speaking on behalf of development partners, the World Health Organisation (WHO), Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo, noted that primary health care is key to attaining universal health coverage.
According to him: “Universal Health Coverage is a critical component of the Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal 3: ‘Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’ which emphasizes the need for health to be accessible, equitable, safe, effective, quality and affordable without the risk of financial hardship.”
Dr. Mulombo, however, insisted that progress towards UHC involves building and extending equitable, resilient and sustainable health systems that are based on primary health care, stressing that the achievement of which requires political will, deliberate and intentional effort for resource mobilization, especially domestic resources, and local ownership for sustainability.
