Lack of drugs, inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities, as well as staff shortage in health centres have been the bane of good healthcare delivery at the grassroots level. JUSTINA ASISHANA visited some local government areas in Niger State and reports on how much the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF) has changed the narratives.

Saidu Aisha, 35, almost lost her son in 2020 when the infant was running a high temperature fever, and there was no equipment at the laboratory of the Primary Health Centre (PHC) in her community to conduct a test on the sick boy.

“At the time, there were also no drugs at the health centre,” said Aisha, a housewife who lives in Nasarafu Ward in Bida Local Government Area of Niger State, North-Central Nigeria.

“After examining him, the health worker on duty wrote on a paper the type of tests we needed to run, saying that they could not do them there,” Aisha added.

The woman and her son spent hours in a long queue at the General Hospital where they went for the tests. After that, they shuttled between the hospital and the PHC for tests and other medical services.

Nearly two years after the sordid experience, Aisha is full of praise for the government for making drugs available at the PHC.

“Now there are drugs at the centre,” she enthused.

Drugs are essential to medical care to improve patients’ health and quality of life. They can save lives and improve health. On the other hand, the scarcity of drugs in a health care facility has drastic implications for patients.

If drugs are in short supply, their prices may rise, imposing financial burdens on patients and their families, and causing mortality if the sickness is severe.

According to Adamu Bashir Fatima, the officer in charge of the centre in Nasarafu, the health facility could not dispense drugs or conduct laboratory tests before the availability of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF).

The PHC at Nasarafu is among the 274 focal PHCs in Niger State under the Federal Government’s health intervention programme.

Due to shortage of funds and drugs, Fatima said, she and her colleagues at the facility used to merely prescribe medications for patients and direct them to conduct tests outside the facility.

She said, “Before the basic healthcare provision fund, we had no drugs. We did not receive any funds from the government, so we ran the health centre as we could. We would write out tests for patients and they would go to the general hospital to do the tests.

“But now we have enough drugs bought with funds allocated to us from the BHCPF. We have also brought some equipment.

“Then, it was only pregnancy and malaria tests that we could carry out. Now we test for hepatitis, typhoid, urinalysis. We check blood pressure and sugar level, which we could not do before.”

The Federal Government had initiated the BHCPF under Section 11 of the National Health Act 2014 as catalytic funding to improve access to primary health care. The fund is meant to provide free minimum primary healthcare to the poorest and most vulnerable Nigerians through accredited PHCs in each of the 36 states of the federation and Abuja.

According to the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), the overall aim of the BHCPF is to significantly move Nigeria towards achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

The fund aims to achieve, at least, one functional public or private primary health care (PHC) facility in each political ward.

In addition, the fund seeks to have the same in, at least, 30 per cent of all wards over the next three years, 70 per cent within five years, and 100 per cent within seven years.

Focal PHCs wear new looks
Most of the 274 focal PHCs across Niger State accessing the BHCPF are wearing new looks of blue and milk colour to depict their renovation. Entering some of these PHCs, a visitor will see some new ceilings, new roofing and, in some cases, an extension of the buildings.

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/heres-how-bhcpf-is-changing-the-face-of-primary-healthcare-in-niger-state/