By Daniel Tyokua
The Federal Capital Territory Health and Human Service Secretariat (HHSS) has said 71 out of the 154 Primary Healthcare Centres across the territory are in a bad state.
The outgoing mandate Secretary of the secretariat, Dr Abubakar Tafida disclosed this in press briefing at the weekend.
He said FCT administration was doing all it could by revitalising about 83 of the Primary Health Care.
“We have 154 functional PHC in FCT with at least 83 in minimum operations.
“The administration procured $ 2. 4 m drugs and consumables, There has been a lot of intervention in FCT, there has been the Basic Healthcare Province Fund component.This means one ward one PHC and we have 62 wards in the six Area Councils”
He said the administration requires about 22 billion dollars to close the funding gap of Primary Health Care (PHC) out of which
USAID has supported with 14bn.
This, he said was necessary as the health facilities targeted to serve about 1. 5 to 2 million people are overstretched to serve over 6 million FCT residents.
He explained that, the Health and Human Service Secretariat (HHSS) in collaboration with international partners came up with a system where philanthropists and spirited individuals can help to revitalize PHC through their moral support.
“We are currently developing new structures in Primary Health Care Centres, all in an effort to ensure that services provided are standard.
“We are soliciting support from various organizations and international partners and individuals to come and look at the status of the PHC and revitalize them, we are not asking for money.You can choose one, or ten and support it. We want to drill a borehole so that there can be water for women and children use.
“But the truth is that there has been so much investment in the health sector especially on the FCT as recent as providing drugs and consumables. $4 million going forward we need to look at the status of this primary health centers. Asking someone to provide a website where anybody who is interested in watching can go through the plight in the primary health center and decided to provide manpower support, provide anything that will improve the quality of care in that facility”
