Primary health care services delivery. Issues and challenges (PDF)

Case Study from the year 2020 in the subject Health - Health system, , language: English, abstract: The study attempts to explore the impact and challenges of PHC delivery system with the intension of generating data for policy and planning.

The goal of primary health care (PHC) was to provide accessible health for all by the year 2020 and beyond. Unfortunately, this is yet to be achieved in Nigeria and seems to be unrealistic in the next decade. The PHC aims at providing people of the world with the basic health services. Though PHC centers were established in both rural and urban areas in Nigeria with the intention of equity and easy access, regrettably, the rural populations in Nigeria are seriously underserved when compared with their urban counterparts.

About two-thirds of Nigerians reside in rural areas therefore they deserve to be served with all the components of PHC. Primary health care, which is supposed to be the bedrock of the country's health care policy, is currently catering for less than 20% of the potential patients. 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 and within the overall national health policy. Private medical practitioners also provide health care at this level.