Primary healthcare (PHC), the lowest level of the healthcare system, is undeniably the most accessible to individuals. It is intended to be freely accessible and to deliver essential healthcare services at the grassroots level at the lowest possible cost.
PHCs have the capacity to minimise maternal and infant mortality, manage illness such as malaria, and conduct routine immunisation campaigns and other campaigns against child killer diseases, among other essential roles, when they operate at their peak.
However, some stakeholders believe that PHCs in Nigeria have fallen short of expectations. They are not far from the truth, given the numerous obstacles that this vital healthcare system faces.
PHCs, which are typically located in rural regions, are not the choice destination of many health workers, who prefer to work in urban locations with good facilities and infrastructure that will improve their well-being and practise.
The PHC health worker’s payment is not the finest among health workers, hence many talented doctors and nurses would leave for larger hospitals with better pay packages.
PHCs, which are typically operated in decaying infrastructure, are the most neglected and underfunded in Nigerian healthcare, and as a result, many healthcare staff would prefer not to practise in a setting where they will continuously have to improvise.
Over the years, various levels of government have urged development partners and international donors to help fund PHCs and provide logistics, including training, to ensure their smooth functioning.
The German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) has offered to assist in improving the country’s basic healthcare system.
GIZ strives to strengthen the capacities of national stakeholders and institutions through the Pro-Poor Growth and Promotion of Employment Programme (SEDIN) and the BACKUP-Health programme.
GIZ promotes healthcare delivery, especially through global health projects that foster health sector synergy.
The GIZ-SEDIN plan, according to Mr Markus Wauschkuhn, would contribute in the growth of the country’s primary healthcare system.
It would also encourage the use of innovative business and digital solutions for the benefit of residents and primary healthcare practitioners, he claims.
“To accomplish this, SEDIN conducted a desk review, qualitative and quantitative research and analysis, and a validation session with key stakeholders.”
“Three winners emerged, with solutions at various stages of development and commercialization.”
“They address core challenges such as maternal and infant health care delivery, data interoperability and management, mobile-based patient management solutions, and continuous learning for healthcare workers,” he said.
According to Ms Margherita Trestini, Marketing Director at Prototipi, SEDIN Primary Health Care Quali-Quantitative Research was conducted between November 2022 and March 2023, with a focus on five states.
She stated that Lagos, Edo, Ogun, Plateau, and Niger were chosen to investigate the level of knowledge and adoption of digital solutions capabilities at the basic health care level.
Trestini stated that it also attempted to identify the dangers and expected obstacles in the selected sector’s support in general, as well as the political context, stakeholders engaged, and potential market distortions.
She stated that the investigation demonstrated PHCs difficulties.
“For example, it revealed that Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWs) and junior CHEWs dominate the primary level of care, accounting for approximately 36.8 percent of all care providers at the PHC level.”
According to the report, awareness of the use of technological developments in Nigeria’s PHCs is restricted to primitive and traditional, with its operators mostly familiar with PCs and mobile phones.
“Awareness of emerging technologies such as drones, AI, and blockchain is extremely low.”
“One of the reasons why emerging technologies have a low likelihood of adoption is a lack of knowledge about them and their functions, as they are perceived to be expensive, highly technical, unreliable, and even impossible to implement.”
“Health workers view rural life as difficult and lack the desire to work in PHCs located in rural communities due to a lack of manpower, i.e. a low doctor-to-patient ratio, and an imbalance in service delivery between rural and urban areas.”
“Other challenges include insufficient budgetary allocation by the Federal Government, a lack of skilled personnel and ICT infrastructure, poor funding, and bad roads,” she stated.
Trestini stated that the Primary Health Care Hackathon tasks were developed based on them.
She stated that the goal was to create mobile-based solutions for the administration of primary health care patients.
She added that it was also intended to monitor medicine distribution, promote continuous learning for health staff, solutions targeted to enhancing women’s health or maternity care services, and insurance, among other things.
“The research we conduct allows us to shed light on the specific needs of primary health care workers,” says Mrs Sina Uti-Waziri, Team Leader, Local Economic Development, GIZ.
“We know that only innovation that meets the needs of healthcare workers will be adopted successfully,” she stated.
Some of the healthcare hackathon winners who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) about their solutions.
AfyaRekod’s Head of Growth, Mr Eric Maranga, stated that the organisation bridges the gap in access, ownership, and mobility of health records across Africa.
The initiative is a patient healthcare platform focused on centralised ownership, ongoing access, and mobility of healthcare data for patients across the value chain.
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“It connects all of the ecosystems to the patient via a platform built with blockchain and AI technologies.”
“Patients can use this to digitally store and access their health records, track their health status, and communicate with providers, among other things.”
Natal Care’s Mr Uche Udekwe further stated that the organisation uses mobile technology, machine learning, and low-cost innovation to prevent maternal and infant mortality in Nigeria.
He stated that it was primarily concerned with giving life-saving healthcare knowledge as well as mental and emotional healthcare support.
“Natal also works to monitor medical emergency services to at-risk pregnant women, vulnerable children, and nursing mothers in their home towns, as well as advocating for better access to healthcare at PHC centres, particularly in underserved communities,” he added.
According to Dr. Simpa Dania, Co-Founder of Healthstack Solutions, the company is a global healthcare platform that digitises all types of provider organisations.
According to him, the business offers solutions to basic, secondary, and tertiary hospitals, pharmacies, laboratories, imaging centres, blood banks, and health insurance companies.
“Healthstack uses technology to streamline the operations and processes of various healthcare providers in order to deliver high-quality care within the healthcare system.”
“For example, telemedicine capabilities, appointment scheduling, medical record-keeping, and payments, reducing the administrative burden on healthcare,” she explained.
Given the fierce competition for finite government resources, health-care stakeholders believe donor agencies and development partners should continue to support governments’ efforts to fund, equip, and staff PHCs.
While this is crucial, they argue that governments should not maintain the practise of underfunding these facilities in order to make them appealing to health workers. (NANFeatures)
