Residents of the Kazurawa community in Gaya Local Government Area of Kano State, in a clear example of a collapsed healthcare system, cannot access healthcare delivery as the only hospital in their area has since become despicable and collapsed.
Worse still, the Kazurawa community is this deplorable even as the Kano state Primary Health Care Management Board in 2021 got N3.021 billion budget approval.
The Kano Ministry of Health in the same year got N30.720 billion, an amount meant to fix and address health issues in the state. The state in her first quarter 2021 budget performance report, says she has spent N2.899 billion.
Good as this sounds, on a visit to the Kazurawa community, one sees a completely collapsed healthcare with the only hospital serving the entire inhabitants and other surrounding villages despicable, making it impossible for them to access healthcare delivery.
Tracka, a public accountability organization that first exposed the despicable nature of the hospital, says it needs urgent intervention for its rebuilding.
Projecting the state as one that takes healthcare delivery seriously, Mr. Aminu Tsanyawa, the Kano State Commissioner of Health, told newsmen that the state government will increase health allocation in 2023. This is even as he claims that there has been an increment in health budgetary allocation since 2014 to date from 6% to 17%.
It is unclear how the Kano ministry of health got N30.720 billion approved allocations and the state Primary Health Care Management Board got N3.021 billion in 2021 alone, and the Kazurawa community remains this despicable.
Miss. Juliet, who spoke to MAWA regarding healthcare in Kano, narrated how rural community residents are dying as a result of the absence of healthcare delivery while pointing out that women and children are the most hit.
Juliet narrated how a good number of the Tabanni community residents travel far distances in search of healthcare delivery. She, however, added that some of the pregnant women trek kilometres away to other communities to access ante-natal care. A situation she says is not good for pregnant women considering their fragility when carrying a baby.
Also, read Deplorable hospital forces Kano pregnant women trek 3km in search of healthcare
“It is a known fact that pregnant women are not supposed to trek a long distance, the deplorable condition of Primary Healthcare in many rural communities in Kano is putting them at risk”, Juliet said.
Mr. Ibrahim, a community activist, who claims to have monitored hospitals across rural communities in Kano, speaking to MAWA on the healthcare situation in the state, described them as terrible and unfortunate.
Ibrahim speaking in an angry tone, accused the Kano State Government of diverting huge sums of monies she claims to have expended on healthcare delivery every year.
“I have been to many rural community healthcare centres in Kano, and virtually all of them are in a pitiable deplorable condition, we are yet to understand how the state government deploys huge sums of monies it allocates to healthcare yearly,” Ibrahim said.
Kano example appears to be a common practice in Nigeria, governments at both Federal and State levels, every year, allocate huge sums of monies to the health sector. But, rather than improving healthcare delivery, the monies are misappropriated leaving the citizens to suffer poor healthcare service delivery.
In a society where accountability is upheld and those that are entrusted with public funds are held responsible, N30.720 billion will go a long way to make significant improvements in community health.
MAWA-Foundation could not immediately reach out to the Kano State Government for an official response.
Great write up