A non governmental Organization, Young Women Think Foundation has expressed the need for the state government to improve on the condition of its Primary Health Care Centres across the 27 LGAs of Imo state.
The group under the auspices of Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, also the L Anence de l’ eau- Artos- picardie, and youth for water and climate Agency were able to carry out a research to ascertain the present condition of the PHCs using Isiala Mbano as a case study.
The research was conducted across 10 PHCCs which was randomly selected.
The findings indicated that the Primary Health Centres falls below the standard recommended by the NPHDC.
The state secretary of Eastern Non Governmental Organisation Mr. Richard Onyema while delivering the report on the primary health care centres facility assessment and the Imo state public health expenditure stated that the findings indicated the critical sanitation and hygienic issues were same with the over 10 PHCs sampled.
“Some of the centres had rickety walls and leaking roofs with torn nets on doors and windows while the majority of the PHCCs have dirty, broken down and abandoned toilet equipments with no source of clean water connected to the toilets”.
It also revealed that few facilities had functional boreholes as majority of them depend on rain water collected in deep wells and buckets to function.
“There is also the issue of poor staffing and inadequate accommodation within the premises.on the premise of this and other issues pending on poor funding and Implementation of budgetary allocation for the Health Centres, the foundation recommended that the government should conduct a needs assessment across the 27 LGAs to ascertain and ensure that the peculiar needs of the PHCCs are correctly documented.
It also appealed to the relevant stakeholders especially the Imo state Ministry of Health and the Imo State Primary Health Care Development Agency on the need to urgently improve on the funding to address issues arising from the report.
Speaking at the event on the validation of the research report, the coordinator of the foundation, Hossanna Chinonyere said the essence of carrying out the facility assessment of PHC was for the state government to ensure that pregnant women, nursing mothers and children have access to a furnished and well equipped primary health centres instead of patronizing Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) during delivery.
The Commissioner for health Dr. Victoria Dike assured that the Imo state government has promised to rehabilitate 305 health centres across the state to improve the health condition of its citizens and thanked the organizers of the event for their painstaking efforts in carrying out such research.
A representative of ISPHCDA, Mrs. Immaculata Chukwuemeka also attested to the facts of the findings and assured of the agency’s collaboration with the government to provide a lasting solution to the issues.
