Nasiru Yusuf

Over 79 percent of all child births in Kano state are handled by unqualified midwives and attendants, a report by Nigeria Health Watch has shown.

KANO  FOCUS reports that the study titled “Primary Health Care in Nigeria: A Case Study of Kano State”, was conducted in 49 facilities across the 44 local government areas of the state.

Presenting the report on Tuesday, the Director of Programmes at Nigeria Health Watch, Vivianne Ihekweazu said, the percentage of facilities that offer maternal and child health (MNCH) services in the state is very low.

“Results from the PHCs assessed revealed that many seem to lack some component of the basic requirements as outlined by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) minimum standards for PHCs, however it is evident that significant effort has been made to improve health services in Kano State, as well as increasing funding to the state health budget,” she said.

She also revealed that Kano state is one of the few states allocating over 15% of the state budget to health services.

Mrs Ihekweazu said results of the monitoring revealed that, there is poor power supply, emergency transportation system and good sanitary infrastructure in many of the primary health centres.

According to her, healthcare services are being performed in facilities with insufficient infrastructure.

“There are appears to be a shortage of staff, especially doctors as results show that almost 90% of the PHCs assessed do not have a doctor. Only 17 primary health centres indicated that a pharmacy technician was posted to their facilities. Only 7 facilities indicated that they had an ambulance driver. 35 PHCs said there is no security posted there.

“From the report, it is clear that there are gaps in service delivery in the PHCs assessed and adherence to the minimum standards for primary health care. The resultant effect is poor health seeking behaviour among patients in the state,”Ms Ihekweazu added.

In his address, the Executive Secretary of Kano state primary health care development agency, Tijjani Hussain admitted that the health indicators presented in the report on skilled birth attendants is alarming.

He however, said the 49 facilities monitored could not represent  the entire primary health centres in Kano state.

“The report shows that there are visible improvements, and this validates the efforts we have been making, ” he said.

The executive secretary said Kano state government is planning to construct primary health centres in each of the 484 political wards of the state before the expiration of his tenure in 2023.

He said 129 PHCs are participating in Kano state health contributory scheme and more will be upgraded to provide effective healthcare services.

According to him the state is making significant progress based on NDHIS report of 2008, 2013 and 2018.

“The contraceptive use in 2008 is just 0.5% but now it is 5.6%. Yes looking at it from national average, it is low, it is below the national average. But looking at the progress, we are making progress,” Mr Hussain explained.

Mr Hussaini added that, the board is collaborating with religious leaders and traditional birth attendants to mobilise pregnant women to attend prenatal and post natal care.