The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says only 34 percent of essential drugs are available in primary health facilities (PHF) in Nigeria.
In its 2023 national health facility survey report published on Wednesday, the NBS said only 39.4 percent of all PHFs health care providers received integrated management of childhood illness (IMCI) training.
The bureau added that nationally, health providers in PHFs had more adequate knowledge of the management of malaria (80.3%) than pneumonia (41.0%) and diarrhoea (51.7%).
The NBS said during the survey, availability of essential drugs was measured as the percentage of essential drugs that are available and not expired in the health facilities.
“The findings from the survey shows that an average of 50.6% essential drugs was available in Secondary Health Facilities and 34.3% in Primary Health Facilities (PHFs),” the report reads.
“Basic medical equipment consisting of any weighing scale, thermometer, stethoscope, blood pressure (BP) apparatus and examination light were considered to be in the health facilities if they were available and functioning at the time of the survey.
“Sixty-eight percent (68.0%) of secondary health facilities and 29.9% of public primary facilities have functional basic medical equipment.
“On the average, availability of basic medical equipment shows that North-West recorded the least with 20.9% and South-West had the highest with 48.8%. Family Planning (FP) Services.
“The result shows that 18.5% of facilities had FP pills, 19.5% injectibles, 20.5% male condoms, and 17.8% implant /IUD.
“Health facilities in the South-East zone reported higher availability of family planning consumables compared to other geo-political zones.”
In terms of financial management, the NBS said of all the health facilities surveyed, only 34.5 percent had records of funds expended, and 25.8 percent had records that were up-to-date.
“Fewer primary health facilities (33.4%) compared to secondary facilities (61%) had expenditure records available. Only 21.1% of the facilities had records that reconciled with the cash on hand,” the report added.
“Expenditure records were up-to-date in 24.9% of the primary health facilities as against 46.9% of secondary facilities.
“Fees for services rendered were posted and easily visible to patients in 30.6% of all public health facilities.”
