Gwarangah community residents in Bogoro Local Government Area of Bauchi State lack access to healthcare delivery as the government could not deploy health workers in the community health centre 11 years after its completion.
In a visit to the community, residents in different accounts narrated how the hospital that was constructed and equipped has been abandoned since 2011 as a result of the government’s inability to deploy health workers to the facility.
This is the situation in Gwarangah community, even as Tracka, a public accountability organization that exposed the abandoned community hospital say an estimated 3,000 population that rely on the hospital for their healthcare delivery now travel to Bogoro town in search of healthcare delivery.
Interactions with the community residents revealed that pregnant women are the most hit as they travel kilometres away to Bogoro to access healthcare during childbirth.
Mr. Abdul, who hails from the community and prefers only his first name mentioned, told MAWA-Foundation that the hospital had been abandoned for over 10 years because there is no single health worker deployed to it by the Bauchi State government to provide the needed service to the people.
Abdul, however, told MAWA that the situation in Gwarangah has continued because the government does not care about the lives of the poor. Adding that if the government cares, how on earth will they abandon a well-equipped hospital for over 10 years.
“Take it from me, the government does not care about the lives of the poor, if they do, how come they could not deploy a single health worker to a community hospital that has been completed and equipped for over 10 years”, Abdul said.
It is unclear how the Bauchi State government could not deploy a single health worker to a community health hospital designed to serve an estimated 3,000 population 11 years after it was completed and equipped.
The consequence of this is that residents of Gwarangah will continue to suffer and travel long distances in search of healthcare delivery if the Bauchi State government refuses to deploy health workers to the facility.
There are indications that some of the community residents who may not have money to travel far because of the high cost of transportation, may die of simple illness.
Gwarangah is an example of many communities in Nigeria that have cases of collapsed healthcare. And, the government and its officials do not care. They often resort to traveling abroad for medical care while leaving the poor to die as a result of a collapsed healthcare delivery in the country which they have created.
The poor who cannot afford healthcare in private hospitals or travel abroad are allowed to die of illnesses that can easily be cured, while money meant to provide healthcare delivery to them is often not accounted for by the authorities who are supposed to hold it trust for them.
Tracka who exposed the condition of Gwarangah community hospital has since appealed to the state government to help fix it.
This is even as the Bauchi State government in the last 10 years, had expended huge amounts of monies on healthcare delivery. Amounts that are yet to have significant impacts on the improvement of healthcare delivery in rural communities.
MAWA-Foundation could not immediately reach out to the Bauchi State Government for an official response.