Since its renovation and commissioning five months ago, the Elizabeth Shaba Comprehensive Healthcare Centre in Nyikangbe, Chanchaga Local Government Area (LGA) of Niger state, has witnessed a significant surge in patient patronage. The facility, renovated by Hon. Aminu Yakubu Ladan, Chairman of the LGA, now boasts a modern laboratory building, an ultra scan machine, and other state-of-the-art medical equipment.
Christiana Patrick, a mother of six, who has a long-standing relationship with the facility having delivered all her children there, expressed her delight with the renovated healthcare centre. However, the new laboratory building and the ultra-scan machine that was donated to this facility are currently not in use due to the lack of qualified radiologists in the Primary Health Care (PHC) facility.
Habiba Yusuf, the Officer-in-Charge, expressed her gratitude and praise for the renovation and the installation of essential amenities such as fans and light bulbs, as well as the donation of vital scanning equipment, significantly enhancing the healthcare centre's capacity to provide quality services but, "the scanner was never used since the commissioning because there is no stabiliser to boost the power and of course no trained personnel who can use it." As a result, some patients who require these services are discouraged from returning to the PHC after being referred to other health facilities.
Good but could be better
While these equipments are lacking, there has been a great deal of improvement at the PHC in the last two years. A previous report published by Nigeria Health Watch on 22 July 2022 stated that the facility was in dire need of essential upgrades, including a solar-powered refrigerator to store vital vaccines and medications, a cooler for vaccine storage, and renovated toilet facilities to improve hygiene and sanitation. At the time, the facility lacked laboratory equipment, forcing patients and pregnant women to embark on long journeys to laboratories outside the PHC, resulting in delayed medical attention and stress.
Addressing these needs was crucial to enhancing the facility's capacity to provide quality healthcare services and alleviate the burden on the community. However, despite the facelift, toilets are still not in use even though there is running water. According to Habiba, patients and staff prefer to use the toilet at the security post because of the broken sewage slabs for fear of being bitten by snakes.
She confirmed that the collapsed soak-away pit has snakes residing in them that sometimes crawl out, which poses a huge health risk for patients and staff, "we have killed two snakes here from the soak-away and several times my staff have reported that they saw snakes creeping around the broken slabs which is why we cannot use the toilets. I cannot even allow any of our patients to use the toilets. The only available convenience option is the pit toilet at the security post".
"There was a time, the slab broke and one of my staff fell into the soak-away pit. Luckily, we were able to bring her out." Habiba shared adding that health workers being exposed to the risk of environmental or health issues from poor sanitary facilities is dangerous for the community.
Habiba also pointed out that while the facility has also seen an improvement in power supply, there is still a critical need for solar power installation to ensure uninterrupted power to store vaccines and support other essential services during power outages, guaranteeing continuous and reliable healthcare delivery. Sherifat Haliru, the PHC's Second-in-Charge noted that "we would have been having routine immunisation almost every day here but we cannot, rather we settle for every Tuesday because we do not have a cooler or refrigerator to preserve vaccines for daily administrations."
Prioritising Primary Health Care
Dr. Inuwa Junaidu, Director of Planning, Research, and Statistics at the Ministry of Primary Health Care, commended the Local Government Chairman for his efforts and announced that plans are in progress to improve the facility as well as others , further improving the healthcare infrastructure and services in the region.
"We are planning to renovate fifty-two facilities so that they can provide essential services to all clients that patronise the facilities. All facilities are important, but we are renovating these facilities in stages. We realise that the population in Nyikangbe is increasing and it serves various communities around. We going to augment this effort, by fixing the toilets and of course ensuring the laboratory is in use." Dr Junaidu shared.
The recent renovation of the facility has led to a notable increase in patient patronage however, challenges still persist. Hence the commitment from the Niger State government will go along way to ensure that the facilities can deliver high-quality healthcare.
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One of the primary objectives outlined in Nigeria's Health Sector renewal plan emphasises the necessity of an efficient, equitable, and high-quality health system. This involves bolstering the quality of care and service delivery in healthcare facilities, as well as addressing the provision and retention of healthcare workers. Therefore, resolving these challenges is paramount to enhancing the quality of healthcare service delivery at the Elizabeth Shaba Comprehensive Primary Health Centre in Niger State.
Despite the facelift and service delivery, the facility according to the Officer-in-Charge can attain optimal performance if the following are put in place:
- Renovation of the toilet and the slabs on the soak-away pit should be fixed.
- Solar installation to augment power interruption for storage of vaccines.
- Recruitment of trained staff to operate the laboratory equipment.
