Residents of the Dagiri community in Gwagwalada Area Council of Abuja, are lamenting over poor healthcare conditions.
The Dagiri Comprehensive Primary Health Center which is meant to serve an estimated 5,000 population has no staff, a situation that makes it impossible for it to deliver healthcare to the people.
Tracka, a public accountability organization that first exposed the poor functionality of the Health Centre, says apart from the non-availability of staff, it lacks the equipment needed for the treatment of patients.
A female patient in the Healthcare Centre who bemoaned its unpleasant condition said she was on admission because she had no money to afford a private healthcare delivery.
“I’m tired, the bed I’m lying down on now is not okay for me and there’s nothing I can do about it because I don’t have money to pay for a private hospital,” the female patient said.
Mr. Philip Ezea, a mobile health worker who spoke to MAWA over the condition of healthcare in Abuja, described it as pathetic and unfortunate.
According to Ezea, many of the community Healthcare Centres in FCT the Nigerian capital city are in a deplorable pitiable condition. Mr. Ezea who claims to have visited a good number of the Healthcare Centres in Abuja told MAWA that Kuje, Kwali, and Abaji have the worst form of deplorable Health Centres in FCT.
Lamenting the deplorable healthcare condition in Abuja, Ezea said many pregnant women and children are dying of illnesses that can easily be cured due to poor healthcare delivery.
He added that many communities in the Kuje Area Council have no hospital, a situation he said is forcing pregnant women to trek kilometres away from their homes in search of medical care.
Residents of FCT continue to suffer poor healthcare delivery even as the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) and the six Area Councils in the last 10 years, claimed to have expended huge sums of money on the provision of healthcare for the Abuja inhabitants.
The implication is that, as the government continues to allow public healthcare delivery to go into deplorable condition, many Abuja residents who are civil servants and small business owners who cannot afford private healthcare delivery are likely to die of simple illnesses.
A senior health official in the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) who spoke to MAWA and wants his identity concealed, described the condition of Primary Health Care Centres in Abuja and other parts of Nigeria as deplorable, below standard, and unacceptable.
He, however, blamed the situation on corruption and poor deployment of resources in strategic ways that would yield tangible results.
“In Nigeria, huge sums of monies that are meant for community health go into programming and administrative expenses, leaving the locals who are the primary beneficiaries with nothing”, the NPHCDA official told MAWA.
It is unclear how Gwagwalada Area Council Authority is unable to deploy health workers to Dagiri Community Health Centre which serves an estimated 500 population, leaving residents to suffer in search of healthcare delivery.
MAWA Foundation could not immediately reach out to the FCTA for an official response.
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