A non-governmental organisation (NGO), Connected Development (CODE), has commended the Kwara government on its efforts at improving healthcare service delivery in the state while urging the state government to better healthcare service delivery.

The State Lead of the group, Kehinde Akinsola, said this during a presentation of the result of a random survey of the state of Primary Health Care Service (PHCs) centres in Kwara state to the executive secretary of the state Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Nusirat Elelu, in Ilorin.

Akinsola said that CODE aims to amplify the voice of people in the grassroots, adding that it is one of the implementing partners of the COVID-19 Transparency Accountability Project (CTAP).

He said that the CTAP is a multi-stakeholders project focused on advocacy for a stronger health system and healthcare accountability in Africa.

“Today, we are here to present the result of our random survey of 29 Primary Healthcare Services (PHCs) status in Kwara.

“Out of the 16 local government areas, we visited 10 local government areas, four in Kwara Central and Kwara South and two local government areas in Kwara North.

“We were able to find that toilet facilities in some PHCs were not good, they lacked proper waste disposal alternatives, and some were understaffed, as we met one or two workers in some centres.

“Our result findings are based on the 29 PHCs visited, and we just want the government to be more responsive and accountable to the needs of the people”, he said.

In her response, the Executive Secretary of the health agency, Dr Nusirat Elelu, faulted the methodology used in carrying out the survey, saying out of over 500 PHCs in the state, the group visited only 29 PHCs.

Elelu commended the group's efforts at finding needs assessment areas in the PHCs and the health sector at large.

However, she said that underfunding research, studies and statistics were a major hindrance to finding lasting solutions to accessible healthcare service delivery in Nigeria.

She said the new primary healthcare standard was that there should be at least one functional and accessible PHC facility in every ward, a requirement that the Kwara government had met.

“I commend the Kwara state government for improved healthcare service delivery to the state's people. It was not like this in the past.

“While I appreciate statistics and the evident policy change that comes along with its results, I wish to call on NGOs, philanthropists and corporate organizations to sponsor surveys and donate to meet the needs.

“Donate laudable facilities like toilets, sinking of borehole, waste disposal alternatives and provision of personal effects, that would complement government's effort at improving healthcare service delivery in the state; the government cannot do it alone”, Elelu said.

Also speaking on the sideline of the presentation, Akinsola said, “Although the Executive Secretary of the agency in Kwara state faulted our statistics and methodology, one win for us is that we were able to amplify the voice of Tanke community in Ilorin South over the bad state of the PHC serving the community and we are glad to hear that the government has sealed the PHC because it didn't cater for the people's health.

“Another win for us was we were able to amplify the voice of a health worker at Apado PHC in Ilorin East, who was a volunteer and part-time worker paid by the community.

“We are excited to hear that the lady has been given permanent employment with the state.

“That is what we are driving, which is our aim; amplifying the voice of grassroots, that is what code is all about.

“We want the government to focus on what we were able to bring out from those 29 PHCs because we know the government cannot do it all at once, but we want them to start being accountable to the people.

“We think better days are still ahead of us with PHC service delivery in Kwara,” Akinsola said.