Improving the Primary Healthcare in Bauchi, Kaduna, and Lagos.
Open Access
- Author:
- Akinmorin, Olabisi Shade
- Area of Honors:
- Biology
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Salar Ghahramani, Thesis Supervisor
Christopher Pierce Salguero, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- healthcare
health administration
public health
health policy
Nigeria
primary care
primary healthcare
medicine
case study - Abstract:
- Many Nigerians, particularly children, die from treatable and curable diseases every day, such as malaria and pneumonia. The Primary Health Care (PHC) provides the majority of the cost effective health interventions to prevent and treat major causes of mortality in the country. Improvement of the PHC could have a large impact on the nation’s citizens, especially since the majority of citizens needing help from the PHC are the poor. Although the PHC is arguably the most important among the three tiers of government healthcare, it is also the most neglected by the Nigerian government. This paper examines the factors that drive the performance of the PHC in the poorest and most crowded states in Nigeria: Kaduna, Bauchi, and Lagos. The PHC of the three states are compared and contrasted in the areas of, public funding to the PHC facilities, health service delivery of the PHC, and the performance of the PHC personnel and facilities. A part of this research is based on the analysis of legal documents, scholarly journals, and world databases. The results of the above mentioned criteria were obtained from the World Bank. Overall, the PHC health facilities in Lagos fair better than those in Kaduna and Bauchi. This trend can be attributed to the difference of the PHC organization in Lagos. Most facilities in Lagos are privately owned and located in urban areas. Although the infrastructures of the PHC varies greatly, overall, the facilities are in poor condition, and most facilities do not have taps with running water, electricity, or phones. Basic services for youth care is low, although the 15-24 year old population contract more HIV/AIDS than any other age group in Nigeria. Facilities also lack some equipment needed for maternal and child services and do not have basic drugs in stock. High morbidity and mortality in Nigeria is partly because of the high rates of malaria and HIV/AIDS. This paper provides possible improvements of the PHC nationwide, based on the information learned by the case study of the three states. The findings of the paper suggests that increased budgetary allocation, implementation of new health policy options, increased community involvement, and proper health worker allocation, can help improve Nigeria’s PHC system.