Tungan Gari community residents in Kontagora Local Government of Nigeria state are lamenting the deplorable condition of a Healthcare Centre they rely on for healthcare delivery.
Nigeria Health Watch, which first exposed the deplorable condition of the Tungan Gari community Healthcare Centre that has made it unable to provide healthcare delivery to the inhabitants, says it was built 30 years ago.
On a visit to the community Healthcare Centre, one is confronted with a nearly collapsed building with tattered leaking roofs, fallen windows, and doors that serves as a community hospital.
The Tungan Gari community built 30 years ago has continued to be in this deplorable condition even as the Niger state government 2022 approved N5.454 billion for community healthcare delivery.
The money that was approved using the state Primary Health Care Development Agency is meant to improve healthcare delivery in communities in the state.
Out of N5.454 billion approved for the Primary Health Care Development Agency, N4.923 billion was set aside to be expended on capital projects. While the state ministry of health got N21.828 billion approved for it in the 2021 budget.
It is unclear how the Niger State Primary Health Care Development Agency, got such a huge allocation, and the Tungan Gari community hospital is this deplorable.
Niger State Primary Health Care Development Agency senior official who spoke to MAWA-Foundation, and wants his identity concealed, berated the state government for not showing concern about the healthcare of the people.
He, however, accused some state officials of not properly utilizing resources the state allocates to healthcare while pointing out that a probe into how funds are deployed to healthcare by the state will reveal a huge corruption that will shock many.
Mr. Joseph, a community resident who spoke to MAWA about the Healthcare Centre, said many of the inhabitants travel far distances to other places in search of medical care while describing the Tungan Gari Healthcare Centre as a shame.
“Tungan Gari Health Care Centre has been this deplorable for many years, both the Niger state and Kontagora local governments have left it to decay, they don’t care because it affects only the poor”, Joseph told MAWA.
The Deplorable Tungan Gari community Healthcare Centre is a common example in Nigeria where hospitals are allowed to rot, and the citizens who have the means, resort to private healthcare providers while the poor are allowed to die in a deplorable healthcare system.
MAWA-Foundation could not immediately reach out to the Niger State government for an official response.