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Factor's Affecting Utilization Of Primary Health Care Facilities
[A CASE STUDY OF MORO LGA, KWARA STATE]
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While most PHC facilities are in various state of disrepair, with
equipment and infrastructure being either absent or obsolete, the
referral system is almost non-existent. The goal of the National Health
Policy (1987) is to bring about a comprehensive health care system,
based on primary health care that is promotive, protective, preventive,
restorative and rehabilitative to all citizens within the available
resources so that individuals and communities are assured of
productivity, social well-being and enjoyment of living. The health
services, based on PHC, include among other things: education concerning
prevailing health problems and the methods of preventing and
controlling them, promotion of food supply and proper nutrition,
material and child care, including family planning immunization against
the major infectious diseases, prevention and control of locally endemic
and epidemic diseases and provision of essential drugs and supplies.
The provision of health care at PHC level is largely the responsibility
of local governments with the support of state ministries of health hand
within the overall national health policy (Nigeria Constitution, 1999).
Private medical practitioners also provide health care at this level.
Although PHC was said to have made much progress in the 1980s, its goal
of 90% coverage was probably excessively ambitious, especially in view
of the economic strains of structural adjustment that permeated the
Nigerian economy throughout the late 1980s. But many international donor
agencies such as UNICEF, World Health Organization (WHO) and the United
States Aids for International Development, (USAID) embraced the
programme and participated actively in the design and implementation of
programmes at that level (USAID, 1994). At a stage, most of the
programmes were donor driven. It was not surprising that at the height
of the political crisis in 1993, most of them withdrew their funding and
the programme started experiencing hiccups. With the return to
democracy in 1999, however, primary health care system deteriorated to
an unacceptable level. The availability of basic health services
provided by the PHC especially to rural areas in a country might be used
as a yardstick to measure the extent of its health level of
development. The aim of this article is to describe some strategies
which, if implemented, might enhance the proper and timely use of PHC by
Nigerian rural populations.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Nigeria,
with a population of 170 million, is one of the most populous nations
but weak in health-care standards. Among the people of Nigeria a vast
majority live in rural areas and at most times have access to little or
none of the essential basic amenities. According to the National Primary
Health Care Development Agency, Abuja, Nigeria Despite extensive
investments, the country still has insufficient healthcare delivery
infrastructures, poor quality health-care services, and unevenly
distributed human resource capacity (Adeniyi 2014). These are reflected
in its health-care quality ranking of 187 of 200 countries and listing
among countries with some of the worst health indicators in the world.
The country has an estimated 23 640 health facilities, and 85.5% of
these are primary health-care facilities. Although these facilities
serve the majority of the population, they are unable to provide basic
and cost-effective services, especially in rural areas. Adeniyi (2014)
said this poor performance is attributed to various factors including
poorly equipped health facilities, insufficient staff, lack of clearly
defined roles and responsibilities, inadequate political commitment, and
poor accountability. Quality improvement at primary health-care
facilities is critical, however, efforts to address the quality of care
as a contributory factor to the country’s poor health outcomes receive
less attention. It is in light of this that this study seeks to examine
the factor's affecting utilization of primary health care facilities.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]This study was carried out on the factors affecting utilization of health care services using Moro LGA, kwara state as case study. To achieve this 4 research questions were formulated. The survey design was adopted and the simple random sampling techniques were employed in this study. The population size comprise of selected residents in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State. In determining the sample size, the researcher conveniently selected 123 residents while 100 were returned and valida ... Continue reading---
