Good Governance Team (GGT), a Civil Society Research and Advocacy Platform, has reiterated the need for the provision of sustainable and constant electricity to Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) in the country.
Convener of the team, Malam Tunde Salman, made the call at a Breakfast Meeting on “Mapping Policy Gaps in Electrification of Primary Health Facilities for Functional Healthcare in Nigeria” on Thursday in Abuja.
Salman explained that the connection between energy and health was strong, adding that reliable electricity was a prerequisite for enable quality healthcare service delivery.
He said the delivery of PHCs over the last three decades had been significantly constrained by a multiplicity of factors including deficiency in healthcare infrastructural development and over reliance on unreliable electricity supply.
He noted that for Nigeria to achieve improvement in the quality of its healthcare, public health facilities must be provided with a more reliable, clean and constant energy solutions.
The convener said according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), hospitals require energy use for basic lighting, clinical processes, safe water supply, temperature control, ventilation and vaccines storage for routine immunisation.
He said that the ability of PHCs to provide certain services round the clock and meet the health needs of the people was significantly constrained by appalling grid electricity supply.
“Most of the facilities are forced to shut down before night fall due to lack of electricity to operate night shifts.
“WHO believes renewable energy should play an important role in improving health energy infrastructure if integrated at the policy and operational levels for sustainability.
“However, existing policy and legislative frameworks for PHC electrification in Nigeria, gloss over the integration of renewable energy solutions.
“Despite compelling evidence indicating that renewable energy is the best energy options for PHCs in order to uptake basic healthcare service,” Salman said.
He noted that with the rising number of COVID-19, there was need for PHCs to be well equipt to ensure that they could functions more optimally.
The Programme Coordinator, Heinrich Boell Foundation, Mr Donald Ikenna, advised the Federal Ministry of Health to develop a roadmap for the electrification of PHCs in the country.
Ikenna said, “such strategies mutually or exclusively owned should mainstream the electrification of PHCs in phases, at least starting with the eligible ones per ward.”
