TheCable

In December 2022, an investigation by the Vanguard Newspaper revealed that Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) – which provide access to universal healthcare and are the cornerstone of essential healthcare – were in distress in Nigeria. At the time of the investigation, only 6,000 or 20 percent of the 30,000 PHCs in the country were functional. While President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and other innovative programmes of President Tinubu’s administration are poised to address the decay in the nation’s PHCs, Governor Chukwuma Soludo has also taken on issues related to providing universal and quality healthcare to every resident of Anambra State, head-on. Governor Soludo is determined to set a standard for PHCs in Nigeria.

According to reports, the challenges faced by PHCs in the country include: poor staffing, inadequate equipment, substandard infrastructure, shortage of health workers and lack of essential drug supply.  The lack of functional PHCs in all the 774 Local Government Areas has continued to impact on Nigeria’s healthcare indices. This can be seen in the nation’s high infant and maternal mortality rates and Nigeria’s life expectancy numbers. (With effective PHCs, life threatening ailments could be nipped in the bud at their onset and cases of complicated surgeries in specialist hospitals could also be prevented when these ailments are diagnosed and treated at their onset). In fact, PHCs have not lived up to the vision of Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti, who as minister of health adopted the PHC model in local government areas in Nigeria in 1988.

But the Soludo-led administration has decided to take the bull by the horn in terms of the development of PHCs in Anambra State. In the coming months – before this September to be precise – there would be at least two fully functional PHCs in each of the 326 electoral wards in Anambra State. Procurements for the construction and equipping of these PHCs are currently ongoing.

Apart from the massive revitalization of PHCs in Anambra, the Governor Soludo-led administration is constructing and equipping 5 new general and specialist hospitals in the state. While the Okpoko General Hospital will be commissioned in the coming days, the general hospitals in Fegge, Oroma Etiti, Anaku and Enugwu-Otu will be commissioned at different times before the end of the year. There are other massive investments in the pharmaceutical ecosystem in the state.

In terms of staffing these PHCs, the Governor Soludo-led administration has just concluded the recruitment of 500 healthcare personnel that would be posted directly to PHCs in the state. The onboarding of these newly recruited healthcare workers – which include nurses, scientists, pharmacists and doctors – is currently ongoing. Further recruitment of PHCs workers and the re-training of existing staff are expected to continue on a needs assessment basis in the coming months and years.

With the state-of-the-art telemedicine ICT infrastructure that are currently being procured for all the PHCs across the wards in Anambra, it is expected that patients in hard-to-reach areas across the state will be able to have access to the best physicians in the state. With this state-of-the-art ICT infrastructure, the referral processes to general and specialist hospitals from PHCs are expected to be seamless.

To ensure the long-term sustainability of each of the PHCs in all the wards in Anambra, between 10kVA to 20kVA of solar energy sources have been procured to act as complementary energy sources for each of the PHCs. With this power infrastructure, PHCs in Anambra will provide 24-hour services, even in rural areas. It is expected that the massive investment in renewable energy infrastructure in these PHCs will help drive down the cost of running these health facilities.

Most of the existing PHCs in Anambra do not have functional water boreholes. Currently, plans are underway for the installation of boreholes in all the PHCs in the 326 wards in Anambra, including PHCs in areas where it is extremely difficult to get water bearing aquifers.

In terms of equipping these PHCs, the supply of basic hospital equipment – including world-class hospital beds – have been concluded. It is expected that the era where pregnant women deliver on wooden beds will be a thing of the past when these PHCs are functional in September.

The benefits of having these PHCs at the doorsteps of residents of rural areas are enormous.

It is also expected that these PHCs will help boost the ongoing free antenatal and free delivery services in the state. Pregnant women would not need to travel long distances to access the state’s ongoing free antenatal and delivery services.

Working with the Anambra State Health Insurance Agency, these PHCs would help reduce the plight of vulnerable citizens. For example, today, children living with sickle cell disorder in Anambra have been enrolled in the state’s health insurance scheme.  These children have been offered free health insurance. With the coming of these PHCs, access to free medication for these patients is made easier.

The Anambra State Health Insurance Agency, the Anambra State Primary Health Care Development Agency and the state’s ministry of health are setting the pace in terms of universal health coverage in Nigeria. They are on course in achieving Governor Soludo’s vision of repositioning the healthcare sector in Anambra in order to attain international standards.

Nwankwo is the special adviser on special projects to Soludo.