– The House of Representatives decries the state of primary health-care in the rural areas – The chairman of the House committee on health, Chike Okafor says it is necessary for the current bottlenecks hindering the provision of efficient primary health-care system in the country be identified and removed – The minister of health, Prof. Isaac Adewole says the federal government is taking steps to address the decay of the state of primary health-care in the rural areas The House of Representatives has called on the federal government to revive the state of primary health-care in the rural areas. The House of Representatives has called on the federal government to declare a state of emergency in the primary healthcare (PHC) sector. The House made the call yesterday, November 22, at a public hearing on financing health-care and revitalization of primary healthcare system in Nigeria organised by the committee on health services, Leadership reports. At the hearing, the committee chairman Hon. Chike Okafor decried the state of primary health-care in the rural areas. He said: “currently, there are 774 Local Government Areas (LGA) with 9,572 political wards in Nigeria. At least, each of the LGAs has one primary healthcare centre (PHC) that is not functional. “Most of these PHC centres lack drug supplies, basic health infrastructures and cannot boast of good number of medical personnel. “In fact, patients accessing these PHC centres can hardly afford the cost of transportation or cost of subsidised drugs due to the economic hardship of most rural dwellers” Okafor provided an estimate of Nigerians who died from diseases in the previous year. “In 2015 alone, malaria killed 192,284 people in Nigeria, diarrhoea killed 143,688, neonatal and maternal disorders killed 212,557 women and children. “In other words, for every person killed by terrorists, 36 Nigerians are killed by mosquitoes, 27 are killed by dirty water and 40 women and children died during pregnancy and childbirth,” he noted. He said it was necessary for the current bottlenecks hindering the provision of efficient PHC system in the country to be identified and removed, noting that that the attainment of Universal Health Coverage in the country is hinged on full functionality of the PHC system. On his part, the minister of health, Prof. Isaac Adewole said the federal government is taking steps to address the decay in the health sector even as it has set up a committee chaired by the minister of finance to look into the reactivation of PHC centres. He noted that efforts to reposition PHC in the country would be fruitless if appropriated budgets were not released or cash-backed as and when due. He said that if budgetary allocations to the sector cannot be increased, the lawmakers should not reduce it.

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