‘Poor data collation truncates quality healthcare delivery’
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| Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu, Minister of health, Nigeria |
Up until late 1980’s, remarkable progress had been made in the development of Primary Health Care (PHC) at the Local Government Areas (LGAs) largely responsible for healthcare at this level, with support from the state ministries of health and within the overall national health policy.
This move was born out of the fact that people, especially in the rural areas, needed to access affordable medicare in a system that delivers quality, integrated services with the participation of all stakeholders in the health sector.
The result of this placed Nigeria in the front row of countries across the globe advanced the process of equitably improving the health and quality of life of their people through primary health care. In order to capitalise on these achievements, the National Primary Health care Development Agency (NPHCDA) was established following the recommendation of a high level WHO review team through Decree 29 of 1992.
Sadly, due to lack of medical facilities, lack of adequate number of personnel to man these centres (as a result of brain drain of medical personnel to developed nations like United States of America, Britain, etc, primary healthcare centres in the country have been faced with the dilemma of effectively collating health data, which is expected to fast-track the provision of efficient Medicare to Nigerians.
Making this known to journalists in Abuja , Emmanuel Abanida, acting executive director, NPHCDA, disclosed that the inability of most primary health care centres to effectively collate data is one of the setbacks to efficient provision of health care in the country.
While stating that PHC, according to WHO, is essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology made universally available to individuals and families in the community, Abanida revealed that there is the need for quality and unified primary health care data bank to facilitate the implementation of health policies that would enable the country meets the MDGs goals.
The acting director maintained that the agency had made serious efforts in the past one year to develop a unified PHC data bank, where information on disease prevalence as well as disease outbreak could be assessed easily by both government agencies and departments and individuals.
In his words, “We have input from Federal Ministry of Education, National Health Insurance Scheme, National Population Commission (NPC) and development agencies. This is to ensure that we come out with unified data.”
Meanwhile, the Federal Government recently disclosed that the country would need an aggregate investment of N4.1 trillion ($26.6billion) in the health sector between now and 2015 under its National Strategic Health Development Plan to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
According to Onyebuchi Chukwu, minister of Health, the investment, which is expected to cover physical infrastructure, human capital development and other sundry projects would be jointly funded by private, public (federal, states, local government), development partners and the Diaspora. He further stated that this move is estimated to attract N666.3billion annually, representing N5, 100 per person, annually.
Even as recent reports suggest that only Bauchi, Rivers and Delta States had indicated interest in the health programme, it is believed that the five-year plan was comprehensive enough to accommodate all stakeholders in the country given effective collaboration between the federal and state governments to maximise resources and achieve the government’s health vision of 20:2020.
Even as this plan is part of the vision of becoming one of the leading economies of the world by the year 20:2020 and improving on health indicators in line with the MDGs, there is the need to effectively address the challenges in the sector by constructing comprehensive health institutions, especially in rural areas and providing them with adequate equipment and trained personnel in a bid to reducing the congestion in General hospitals and tertiary health centres.
No doubt, the sustainability and viability of a nation’s economic and social growth depend largely on vibrant healthcare sector of that nation. Since no country can maintain a steady economic growth in the absence of an adequate healthcare system, solving the puzzle requires an aggressive approach from the federal, state, and local government. Healthcare problem is a national emergency and it should be considered as such.
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