A census of hospitals in six states has found official listing of hospitals as “incomplete and inaccurate”.

Some 32% of private hospitals found by surveyors in states as Lagos, Nasarawa, Benue, Edo, Kaduna and Abia were not included in official government list, according to the project, Strengthening Health Outcomes through Private Sector (SHOPS).

“Another 53% of private hospitals in the areas on government lists could not be found on the ground by surveyors,” the researchers reported.

But they also found nearly 50% of more than 5,000 private hospitals across the six states were located in Lagos alone, an estimated three private hospital for every 10, 000 residents.

Nasarawa, Benue and Edo have around two per 10,000 people, while Kaduna and Abia have one.

“The ratio of private health facilities to total population is substantially higher in Lagos than in other states,” said survey reviewer Sikiru Baruwa.

A large proportion of them offer at least four family planning services and others plan on additional services in future, researchers reported, indicating “excess capacity to deliver family planning services.”

“SHOPS aims to provide an enabling environment for the private sector to thrive and provide high quality maternal and health services,” said Michael Harvey, country director of US Agency for International Development, which supported the study.

“Government and SHOPS are presently working on an arrangement where public sector family planning commodities are given to SHOPS for distribution to private health providers at highly subsidized rates in states where the project is being implemented,” said health minister Onyebuchi Chukwu, in comments delivered on his behalf by the health ministry’s director for family health, Dr M. I. Balami.