Yemisi Dada
There is an urgent need for Local Health Services to be resuscitated at the Local government level for improved healthcare service delivery at the grassroots.
This was the consensus of stakeholders at a high level advocacy meeting under the Kimberly Clark Integrated Hygiene and Health Program, I-HHP organized by an NGO WaterAid Nigeria held at Ikeja GRA.
Deputy Director, Health Planning, Research and Statistics at the Lagos State Primary Health Care Board, Dr Ladi Abudu, noted that the many gaps and challenges in the Primary Health Centers, PHCs, across the state was due to the inefficiency of Local Health Services to utilize available funds from government at all levels.
” If you don’t know, Local health authority services are the closest to the grassroots as they provide maternity and child welfare, posthospital care, home nursing, immunization, ambulance service, and various other preventive and educational services. They may also operate family-planning clinics, as well as day nurseries for children, hence the need to strengthen them in collaboration with leadership of local governments for the benefit of residents”
WaterAid Nigeria Lagos Program Head, Dr Adebayo Alao who was represented by Mr Godfrey Iloha, said the meeting objective was to engage policy makers at the grassroots to sustain the legacy of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene WASH projects by the NGO and re-model such in other PHCs to make life better for residents especially women, children and people with disabilities.
Other Target Beneficiaries and Expected Results on the project include improved care for 30,000 pregnant, nursing mothers and improved sanitation and hygiene for 20,000
community members in Ikorodu North and Ojodu LCDAs will be reached through
sanitation and hygiene integration services into healthcare facilities and communities.
5 Ward Health committees will be established in each ward with five members per
committee.
Two (2) PHCs have improved water and sanitation facilities.
Hygiene behaviour change campaign/messages successfully integrated into routine healthcare practices within 16 primary healthcare facilities in lkorodu North and Ojodu
LCDAs.
Structures and processes within target PHCs strengthened for sustainable functionality.
operation and maintenance (0&M) of upgraded primary healthcare sanitation facilities.
One (1) community attain open defecation free status through intensified hygiene and sanitation behaviour change campaign.
Development of PHC WASH investment plan.
Relevant authorities in the state and local council areas institutionalise WASH into state
economic development plans and prioritize implementation of the Federal Government’s
Open Defecation Free Roadmap”
After the deliberations, Vice Chairman Ikorodu North LCDA, Mr Olawale Apanisile and representative of Ojodu LCDA, Dr Shola Tanimowo, commended WaterAid Nigeria and reiterated their commitment to sustaining and maintaining the WASH facilities in their LCDAs with a call for more capacity building on maintenance culture for health officers in Lagos.
“We have gained so much from WaterAid Nigeria in our local governments and we will have commenced brainstorming on how to sustain the WASH facilities provided by the NGO so they will be happy to do more, but we are also appealing to WaterAid to invest more in human capacity building for our health officers on imbibing maintenance culture which is what is lacking after handover of any facilities, so we will appreciate them in that regard”
Some of the success stories of the I-HHP project include upgrade of two PHCs with maternal and child health equipment, integrate and sustain hygiene and sanitation behavior change campaign in the two focal LCDAs, conduct formative research, water test as well as rehabilitation of water and toilet facilities in different locations across Lagos.