An estimated 2,335 populations in the Ikot Akata Ikpa Ibom community at Mkpat Enin Local Government Area of Akwa-Ibom have been denied access to healthcare delivery as only community Primary Health Care in their area has become deplorable.
A visit to the hospital that was first exposed by Tracka, a public accountability organization shows a completely dilapidated hospital with tattered mattresses and leaking roofs.
Apart from the hospital having tattered mattresses and roofs, it has no doors and windows and the fallen ceilings and cracked walls are about to collapse on patients.
This is the situation in the Akata Ikpa Ibom community even as the Akwa-Ibom state government in less than four years has expended billions of Naira on healthcare delivery.
Miss Edet Okon, who spoke to MAWA over the condition of healthcare delivery in the state, accused the state government of negligence in healthcare, especially in rural areas.
“The Akwa-Ibom State does not care about the people’s healthcare, take a trip to the rural communities and see the despicable condition of healthcare, many of them are dying over simple illness,” Okon said.
Akwa-Ibom 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, the huge amount of resources expended on healthcare in the state will go a long way to make significant improvements in community health.
With this kind of despicable poor healthcare in Akwa-Ibom and across the Nigerian State, it will be difficult for the country to meet Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) goal 3 which is good health and well-being.
MAWA-Foundation could not immediately reach out to the Akwa-Ibom State Government for an official response.