Residents of Mallagum Community in Kaduna, have continued to suffer a lack of healthcare delivery as the only hospital in the area is in unimaginable deplorable condition.
This is the terrible condition of Mallagum Community hospital, even as Kaduna state government in her 2021 budget approved N39.3 billion for health expenditure.
The community that is located in the Kaura Local Government Area of Kaduna State, a few kilometres away from Kaduna and about 174,626 population, depends on the hospital for their healthcare.
“Follow The Money”, a social accountability organization that was in the community and has since exposed the terrible dilapidated nature of the hospital, says that is the only hospital the inhabitants rely on for their health care delivery.
Out of the N39.340 billion approved health expenditure by the Kaduna State government, the ministry of health got N15.8 billion.
In the total sum approved for health by the Kaduna state government, Kaduna State Primary Health Development Agency, an agency directly involved in the development of community hospitals, got N11.3 billion in just one year-(2021).
Another agency, Kaduna State Drugs and Medical Supplies Management Agency, with the direct responsibility of ensuring medicines, are made available to hospitals got N1.7 billion.
The deplorable nature of Mallagum Community leaves one in doubt about how the Kaduna state government had deployed and utilized its health funds in the last decades.
Mallagum Community, is not an exception, across communities in Nigeria, there are many examples of terribly dilapidated hospitals.
In most rural communities, there are no hospitals, making it impossible for inhabitants to access health care service delivery with some of them dying of sicknesses that can easily be cured.
And, this, lack of health care delivery in rural communities, contribute hugely to infant and maternal deaths in the country.
Clearly, if the Kaduna state government, had released and judiciously utilized the N39.3 billion approved for health in 2021 alone, Mallagum Community will have a better hospital that will deliver quality health care to the inhabitants.
MAWA Foundation could not immediately reach out to the Kaduna State Government for an official response.
Kaduna State Government 2021 Approved Budget Expenditure by MDAs
| S/N | MDAs | Approved Expenditure |
| 1 | Ministry of Health | 15,867,321,285.50 |
| 2 | Kaduna State Health Contributory Management Authority (KADCHM | 1,050,772,464.39 |
| 3 | Kaduna State Primary Health Care Development Agency | 11,388,435,688.07 |
| 4 | Kaduna State Drugs and Medical Supplies Management Agency | 1,703,731,516.92 |
| 5 | Bureau For Substance Abuse Prevention & Treatment | 650,264,177.11 |
| 6 | Kaduna State AIDS Control Agency | 51,220,113.18 |
| 7 | Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital, Kaduna | 7,099,978,723.12 |
| 8 | Kaduna State College of Nursing and Midwifery | 693,111,403.96 |
| 9 | Shehu Idris College of Health Science and Tech, Makarfi | 835,396,745.14 |
|
TOTAL |
39,340,232,117.38 |