By Daniel Dauda, Jos



The Epidemiological Society of Nigeria (EPISON) has said the Primary Health Cares (PHCs) in the country needs urgent attention, because the poor handling of the sector has led to many deaths in the rural communities across Nigeria.

The society also said that poor implementation of Primary Health Cares (PHCs) since after the establishment of National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) was responsible for about 80% of deaths in rural communities across the nation.

The Society made the claim through Dr. Tolu Fakeye during 8th Annual Scientific Conference of Epidemiological Society of Nigeria at Silk Suites Hotel in Jos.

Dr Fakeye from National Hospital, Abuja and in his paper tagged: "A Scooping Mission on Primary Health Care Under One Roof in Nigeria," also said when federal government introduced National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) implementation of PHCs was 82% but now due to poor handling less than 50% implementation is now being recorded.

He added that it was disheartening and sad as all the states in the country were facing shortage of skilled health personnel for the delivery of PHCs; consequently most rural parts of Nigeria are drastically undeserved.

He said, "When primary health care started in Nigeria, many African countries do come to learn how the services are done, but due to poor implementation of policies Nigeria’s performance declined."

In his remarks, the Chairman of the Conference, Prof Micheal Asuzu frowned at the level at which the primary health care policies were implemented.

He said, “It was poor the way PHCs was implemented, our zonal scores shows that North East and North West regions even fared better than other regions of the country while states in South East and South-South recorded the least performance.”

Mr Asuzu recommended that for PHC to be better there is a need for intensification of advocacy to local government councils, training of PHCs workers, and expansion of technical assistance to enhance capacity of the PHC workers and also need to increase the funding of PHCs among others.