By Chioma Obinna
To accelerate improvement in health outcomes and reduce the unacceptably high rates of maternal and child deaths amidst the decline of infrastructures in Primary Health Centres, PHCs, nationwide, the Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria, PHSAN, is designing one world-class PHC facility in each of the 774 Local Government Areas, to address critical challenges in the health sector.
PHSAN seeks to improve healthcare for all Nigerians by providing quality, affordable healthcare using Adopt A Private Health Facility Project, ADHFP, launching in Lagos November 10, 2022.
The Chief Executive Officer of PSHAN, Dr Tinuola Akinbolagbe, disclosed at a media forum that the alliance seeks to address challenges of access and utilisation, poor governance, an inefficient supply chain, and absence of skilled workforce that are some of the issues contributing to the current state of healthcare in the country.
“Studies have shown that one of the factors responsible for the dismal health indices is poor PHC strategy and the diligent implementation of a PHC strategy that seeks to address the healthcare and wellness needs of some societies has seen many countries including Vietnam, Bangladesh, Botswana and Ghana, rapidly overtake Nigeria in healthcare”
She said the ADHFP was conceptualised by Mr Aigboje Aig- Imoukhuede and PSHAN with the primary goal of establishing at least one global standard primary healthcare centre in each of the 774 local government areas in Nigeria.
Akinbolagbe who noted that many years after the leadership of Professor Olikoye Ransome Kuti, it became obvious there was a need to strengthen the PHCs in Nigeria, even as he added that ADHFP will restore public trust in the efficiency and effectiveness of the Nigerian healthcare sector.
She regretted that the current state of PHCs in Nigeria was appalling with only 20 per cent of the 30,000 PHC facilities operational nationwide.
Akinbolagbe who spoke extensively on the ADHFP said: “You can invest in a building, if you don’t look at the human resources, don’t provide money for their salaries, don’t train them, don’t put a governance system in place, don’t put a health financing system in place so that it is sustainable, don’t put equipment, don’t have an agreement with the equipment suppliers to service the equipment, it will just be a waste of time because you are rarely coming to take photos with the equipment and it would have deteriorated,” she explained.
Akinbolagbe said already, PSHAN has raised f N9.1 billion for the project, adding that ADHFP is a platform for collaboration, communication, and effective change between multiple interested parties.
“We are hoping to accomplish this by working with at least 110 potential adopters – corporate organisations, private foundations, international donor agency trusts, and individual philanthropists in the first five years.”
Already, all PHCs in Kano State have been adopted, and ADHFP is critical in achieving the SDGs and Universal Health Coverage in Nigeria, she argued.
The centre will build new ones where required but will also redesign as required and subsidise services which will not be entirely free, rather, cost-effective, affordable and available for all Nigerians.
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