Expectant mothers as well as others with little cash in Abia State resort to prayer houses and traditional healers, among others, in the face of comatose health centres, OKWY IROEGBU-CHIKEZIE reports that it is a national malaise
As labour sets in, the expectant mother seeks prayers from the local prophet. Sometimes she presents herself before a traditional healer, who promptly assembles his work tools and makes incantations, appealing to the spirits for hitch-free delivery. Other times, a traditional birth attendant takes charge.
Sometimes, the woman is lucky and returns home with her bundle of joy. Other times, she returns empty-handed, or does not survive the ordeal of childbirth.
Expectant mothers are not the only ones who turn to unorthodox means when they face health challenges. The poor across the country regularly call at the poorly regulated local patent medicine shopkeeper or the neighbourhood healer, or even help themselves to whatever they can prescribe or procure when they have anything from a headache to a swelling in some hidden parts.
The reason for this scenario, as the reporter found out, is that some communities lack health centres while some which do, have them only in name.
In Amaba, a community in Isuikwuato Local Government of Abia State, the only visible sign that a health centre exists is a signpost donated by an indigene of the town Mr John Akunna, an engineer. The centre has been dwarfed by a big tree concealing its existence. This same situation also applies to another centre in Otampa in the same local government.
The Nation spoke to some of Amaba village leaders and residents of the area who said they resort to alternative means of healing as a result of the poor condition of the health centre.
Those who are a bit well-off and those whose children can afford it resort to taking their parents from the village to the cities or to nearby towns such as Okigwe in Imo State or Umuahia, the Abia State capital, or Uzuakoli where reasonably good private hospitals exist.
The President of Amaba Women Association, Hon Ngozi Ndubuisi lamented the state of the health centre and noted that the most basic things are lacking there. She confirmed that their women have resorted to alternative solutions such as the traditional birth attendants and churches to seek solution.
According to her there is nothing to show that lives can be saved in this particular health centre apart from the signboard donated by a kind-hearted indigene.
What can be done to turn the fortunes of the centre around?
Ndubuisi said, “The building needs renovation as its ceilings are broken; roofs and floors are poorly ventilated as a result of poor construction. Currently there is no electricity as the health centre is billed N10,000 monthly and currently owes over N230, 000 to Enugu Disco because it is charged as a commercial entity. How on earth can a health centre in a village that is supposed to target the wellbeing of the poor be tagged a commercial outfit? Besides there is no water supply, we believe seriously that a borehole and a tank for constant water supply is one the critical needs of a health centre. We need Placenta Pit and related equipment to help in disposing health waste unlike what is obtainable here which can spell doom to the whole community in case of epidemic outbreak.
“Furthermore, the government needs to provide alternative sources of power like inverters and generators. We need the centre to be fenced; it is so bare and poses a security risk both to the patients and medical hands when they are available. There have been cases of security breaches where some miscreants tried to force themselves into the clinic even in its poor state.”
She regretted that as a result of the parlous state of the health centre a greater percentage of the people have deserted it, resorting to spiritual and other means to obtain healing. The women leader lamented that some basic and critical laboratory equipment to run simple test and others to check the blood pressure of the people are not available. She appealed to both the state and local government to come to their aid and put life in the centre.
The politician insisted that these facts are verifiable if only the necessary government agency will take a visit to the centre and subsequently do the needful, noting that the centre can only be termed a white elephant project as it has refused to live to its billing.
An officer in one of the PHC, who confided in our correspondent, said, “Ad hoc staff or auxiliary nurses are now in charge of many of our PHCs due to the acute shortage of trained personnel in the state.”
Hon Ndubuisi further asked for the construction of staff quarters for a few of the medical hands and the posting of Youth Corps members who may be medical doctors, pharmacists and with other relevant qualifications so that patients will be adequately taken care off. According to her, this is what governance is about.
Adding his voice, Chairman, Amaba Health Centre Committee, Mr. Samson Nnechi said, in fairness, the village health centre cannot be taken as one, as it looks more like a deserted colony. He regretted the poor construction of the building with poor ventilation, cheap roofing materials, broken walls and floors as against what the government promised.
According to him, his people have deserted the place as a result of the poor facilities at the centre resorting to other means to achieve good health while those whose children can afford it take them away from the village.
He lamented that his people do not feel the impact of government in the community, adding that the centre is not only porous, but also the absence of essential equipment and drugs that can handle the simplest ailment including the N10,000 monthly electricity charge by Enugu Disco as the centre is tagged as commercial with an outstanding of N230,000 as unpaid debt.
On what he will prefer at the centre, he asked for the fencing of the centre, the remodeling of the building to show that it is a health centre, staff quarters so that emergency cases can be treated anything of the day, a functional generator, the posting of doctors, pharmacists and other health practitioners to the centre even if they are Youth Corps members.
He said, “As a community we have tried within our little resource to provide security doors to discourage intrusion and ensure the security of the few hands providing skeletal services offered by the centre. We once again appeal to government to provide a borehole, water tank, fencing of the centre, provide delivery bed, placenta pit, incinerator, standing type BP apparatus”.
On why the low patronage by the community he said nobody will want to visit for the sake of it when you won’t receive the needed treatment. Though he commended the few nurses who are working with almost nothing he advised the government to motivate her staff. He regretted a situation where a staff Nurse Midwife will be acting as medical doctor under very poor condition without pay for several months.
Abia State is not an exception as we recall that many PHCs in the country are gradually winding down because government shows little or no interest in their operations.
In Ogun State, many of the PHCs at Asa-Yobo, Ajanbata, Wasinmi, Arigbajo, Ajegunle, Itori, Egbado, Papalanto, Awowo, Obada-Oko, Igbin Ojo, Elere, Ibafo, Onigbedu and Olorunda, The Nation learnt, are in poor conditions.
Recently, Governor Dapo Abiodun pledged to rehabilitate the centres. Commenting on the rot in the PHCs, the chairman of the Ogun State chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association, Dr Ismail Lawal said Nigerians embrace traditional medicine because of failed health care centres and poverty.
Lawal said, “Majority of citizens access traditional medicine not only because of the failed PHCs, but because they are poor. The way out is health insurance that is affordable and of global standard. I am worried, we are worried.”
In Abia State all eyes are on Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to do the talk and provide easy access to health for the citizens.
Sometime ago it was reported that his administration selected 290 primary healthcare centres to benefit from the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, a Federal Government initiative.
Ikpeazu made this known at a special party held in Umuahia for the elderly people of Abia.
He was reported to have said that the state government was committed to evolving programmes aimed at improving healthcare services in the state.
According to him, the programme is designed to provide access to healthcare services in various communities and would greatly boost the state government’s efforts in the health sector.
He said: “By the time this policy gets off the ground, one could walk into the primary health centre and get good quality healthcare. Those above 70 years need special care and the state government intends to sustain the ongoing free House Healthcare Programme for the elderly”.
Talk is cheap, it is said. The PHCs and communities in Abia State are waiting for the governor especially communities such as Amaba in Isuikwuato Local Government to walk the talk.
A member of staff, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the skeletal staff which are only three in number are demoralised as a result of the poor condition of the centre, and the fact that their salaries are not regular. She said the last time they received salaries was in April and wondered how somebody in that frame of mind can put in her best, in addition to the fact that there are no tools to work with.
She also confirmed that most of the women prefer to seek spiritual help rather than come to the centre. She appealed to the government to take assessment of the PHCs in the state and especially the Amaba PHCs to turn it around so that it can serve its purpose.
A resident, Mrs Obioma Uche said that due to the poor position of the community health centre, pregnant women in the area resort to the use of traditional birth attendants for child delivery and other spiritual houses. She revealed that for the common ailments they resort to herbal alternatives. She regretted that the nearness of the health centre to the local government headquarters has not impacted on it positively and asked the government to see the whole state as one and work for the people that voted them into office.