The United Nations Children’s Fund said Primary Health Care is important and it is the cornerstone of the health sector.

The Chief of Health for UNICEF Nigeria, Dr Eduardo Celades, said this on Wednesday in Dutse, Jigawa State at a two-day media dialogue and field trip on ‘Strengthening PHC systems: the United Nations Children’s Fund PHC Memorandum of Understanding in Jigawa State,’ organised by UNICEF and the Child Rights Information Bureau of the Federal Ministry of Information.

The MoU was signed in 2022 between the Jigawa State Government, the Federal Government, the Nigeria Governors Forum, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and UNICEF to improve routine immunisation, and PHC systems, and reduce deaths, particularly among women and children.

Celades said, “Primary health care is important. So for us, primary health care is the cornerstone of the health sector. 90 per cent of the diseases can be treated in primary health care. But the important thing is not what can be the treatment of the diseases, but as well the prevention.

“So, primary health care is the platform to deliver preventive services. For example, vaccination or immunisation. We know that in the last 50 years, immunisation has saved more than 154 million lives. So PHC is the right place, the right platform to deliver those services. The challenge is that PHC is still weak in Nigeria, and what it means when I say weak is that we don’t have enough health workers, sometimes we have poor data, we have insufficient funding, and we have a weak supply chain.

“So this is what, as UNICEF, we are trying to do, to strengthen PHC, especially in the areas that they need it more, so to leave no one behind.”

The Director of Primary Health Care in Jigawa State, Dr Shehu Sambo, noted that the state is harnessing the resources from the Gavi MoU to change the PHC narrative for positive impacts in the states.

“We are revitalising PHCs, the state is putting enormous amount of funding into PHC revitalisation. We have, as we speak, active 281 apex PHCs, and each of these PHCs will have befitting midwife quarters.

“You have seen the type of building that we are doing. A lot of the bed, the kitchen utensils, mattresses, even some of them are in our stores, waiting for the buildings to be completed so that we put them,” he added.

Sambo restated that the state is committed to improving the PHCs in the state to bring services for health and well-being closer to communities.

PUNCH