Renovated Abuja Primary Healthcare Centre begins operation

Two weeks after the commissioning of the Model Primary Health Care Centre, Kunchigoro, in Abuja, the authorities are ramping up efforts to ensure that proper services are rendered to the people at the facility.

The centre was commissioned under the first phase of a Federal Government scheme to revitalise over 10,000 healthcare centres across Nigeria.

The government said a centre would be made functional in each of the 109 senatorial districts of Nigeria. This means every state of the federation would have three in the first batch, including one in the Federal Capital Territory.

The National Primary Healthcare Revitalization Initiative, which is being implemented through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, and the Federal Ministry of Health, wants to ensure that the centres are fully functional to deliver a number of services in each of the wards across the country.

“The goal of revitalizing the Primary Health Care Centres is to ensure that quality basic health care services are delivered to majority of Nigerians, irrespective of their location in the country,” the Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, had said during the commissioning of the PHC at Kunchigoro

On a recent visit to the Kunchigoro PHC, the staff were working with enthusiasm to ensure that the people of the community were well attended to.

The doctor on call, who declined to talk to the reporter, was also attending to patients.

The centres are to offer patients at the grassroots, diagnosis and treatment of common diseases, as well as other services as counselling and referrals.

One of the major focuses of the PHC system is medical care for pregnant women and infants, both during and after pregnancy.

All required to provide these services were all present at the Kunchigoro centre.

The departments at the Kunchigoro centre include immunization/ante-natal hall, tuberculosis centre lab, family planning section, post-natal ward, labour room and a standby ambulance.