Managing Primary Health Care in the South - South Geo Political Zone of Nigeria

Abstract

Management of Primary Health Care (PHC) is one of the main pillars of a health system through Human Resources. Furthermore, the quality of health services depends to a large extent on the people who manage the services. The paper reviews the role of stakeholders in the management of primary health service provisioning in general and in Primary Health Care in particular, it examines brief historical review of the gradual introduction of new cadres of health managers into the health system in response to perceived health needs, training and deployment of health during the colonial era, establishment of the advance schools for health workers, events at third national development plan and the unfortunate decline of community nursing and community midwifery, etc. It further analyzes factors and challenges of leadership which affect the performance of health managers. It also discussed case studies of proven innovative approaches and best practices in the management of human resources in sub – Saharan Africa and Nigeria. Data used in this paper is derived from secondary sources. An urgent need for a comprehensive database on the Human Resource for Health (HRH) situation in Primary Health Care should be developed. The current Human Resource situation indicates that the availability and distribution of HRH and PHC is far from being adequate. The need to mobilize communities to get them to take ownership of primary health care delivery and its maintenance is important. The morale and motivation of personnel have major implications for their performance. In the case of Human Resource for PHC in Nigeria, data is not easily
available and when available tends to be incomplete and/or contradictory. The distribution and availability of HR and PHC is also a major concern in most parts of Nigeria. The poor distribution and inadequate number of the various health personnel required for an effective PHC in Nigeria is compounded by the brain drain, poor motivation among health personnel and inappropriate policies among others.