Barely five months into his administration, the Katsina state governor, Aminu Bello Masari, had in line with his campaign promises, begun aggressive moves aimed at repositioning health care delivery in the state.
Already, the governor had commenced plans for the total overhaul, redesigning and remodelling of the three General Hospitals of Katsina, Funtua and Daura in a first phase of what he described as holistic efforts to upgrade infrastructures in all the health care centres in the state in line with the determination to accord topmost priority to health care delivery.
Speaking recently when he received the report of the state’s standing committee on health, Masari lamented the deplorable state of infrastructure in health centres across the state assuring that work on the infrastructural upgrade for three General Hospitals of Katsina, Daura and Funtua would soon commence.
“What we want is to make this hospital up to the required standard so that they will serve as referral for other health centres nearer to them pending when we will embark on repairs and upgrade of all other health centres and build new ones where necessary”
All throughout his campaigns, the Katsina state governor, Rt Hon Aminu Bello Masari, pledged to accord top most priority to education, agriculture and health care delivery, perhaps in appreciation of the fact that these three sectors play dominant role in a peoples life.Masari said he would give the state a new lease of life as far as health care delivery is concerned. Katsina State, like most states of the federation, especially the northern states, has very gloomy health indices with an intolerably high maternal and child mortality, high disease burden, especially contagious diseases like cholera, measles among others.
According to the 2008 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), Katsina State has the highest incidence of teenage pregnancy in Nigeria with 65% of all cases recorded nationwide. Mortality rate in Katsina is also high; the current teenage mortality rate is about 0.822 per 1000 women and the bulk of recorded incidences are from the North, with factors ranging from unsafe abortions, pregnancy complications, poor antenatal care that lead to the increase of birth related deaths which abound in Katsina.
Unarguably, maternal and child health care form the bulk of the health challenges confronting the state with a population of a little over six million, Katsina State, according to the 2008 NDHS, has an annual birth rate of 249,000 with the annual number of neo-natal deaths standing at 11, 700. It also has an annual number of under five deaths of 54,000.
In the area of human resource for health, Katsina State, according to 2008 NDHS, has 23 nurses and midwives catering for over 10,000 people with five community health officers. As earlier observed, Katsina, like most states of the federation is battling with the challenges of infectious diseases. This emphasises the need to accord utmost priority to the primary health care subsector since it is widely believed that major challenges are in the rural areas where issues of low education, poverty and other impediments to quality health abound the most.
Indeed, the major challenge of health care delivery is at the rural areas where factors like poverty, poor road network, illiteracy and strict adherence to old beliefs and practices, natives continue to grapple with diseases. In most rural communities, due to the absence of key social amenities, health personnel on postings rarely stay to attend to the locals health need.
Experts are of the opinion that over 80 per cent of our health challenges can be addressed at the primary health care centres provided needed equipment and personnel are made available.
Conscious of the responsibility and perhaps mindful of the fact that the least the citizens and indeed residents of Katsina need are functional health systems, Governor Masari assured that the state government will do all it needed to do in ensuring that the primary health centres are revived to provide general health services of preventive, curative and rehabilitative nature to the people at the grassroots.
It will be recalled that the current administration in the state conducted a survey of the health sector where it noticed staff shortfall and other ills that have been impeding the effective health care delivery in the state.
Governor Aminu Masari said that arising from the survey, the state government has commenced moves for recruitment of more staff as part of measures to address dearth of health personnel in the state health sector. A human resource audit of the health personnel in the state indicate that majority of primary health care (PHC) facilities in the rural areas are under staffed. It also indicated that voluntary health workers and traditional birth attendants are used extensively in PHC facilities as a way of managing the workload.
Of course, this deviates from the staffing standards as prescribed by the minimum service package for PHC facilities. Governor Masari said the comprehensive situation analysis of the health sector in the state revealed that there was gross inadequacy of health personnel, shortage of essential drugs in hospitals and decaying infrastructures. “In an effort to address these gaps, a comprehensive health plan is being developed” Masari said and listed the measures to include planned recruitment of health personnel. Interestingly, Governor Masari has assured that his administration would remain committed to the provision of enabling environment for the implementation of effective health care programmes.
When justaposed with the current efforts to upgrade health centres, it may well be said that the coast is clear for effective repositioning of health care delivery in Katsina State.
Perhaps to make good his promise, Governor Aminu Masari recently released funds for the purchase of drugs for free distribution in health centres across the state. Speaking when he inspected the drugs worth over N70 million purchased under the state funded drug revolving fund scheme, Masari said the APC administration in the state was committed to providing affordable health care services assuring also that his administration will continue to subsidise essential drugs to the state’s citizens.
“The critical needs of the hospitals in terms of drugs and equipment will be quantified and costed,” he said, adding “once this is done government will bring drugs cheaper to the people at sustained pace”. Interestingly, the state government’s drug revolving fund scheme has been strengthened with the recent establishment of the Drug Management Agency (DMA).
Although the initiative to reposition health care delivery in the state is barely taking shape, there are glaring signs that the days ahead may well be bright for the Katsina State health sector, more so that the state is at the verge of constituting an executive council that will be proverbially hitting the ground running.
By: Muazu Elazeh
Leadership News
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