The PHC, which is meant to serve over 100,000 dwellers of the community, has remained in a poor state of operation.
Residents of Oworonshoki, a suburb of Lagos State, have decried the poor state of the Primary Health Care Centre in the community.
The PHC, which is meant to serve over 100,000 dwellers of the community, has remained in a poor state of operation, performing below expectations due to the government's neglect.
It was gathered that Oworonshoki healthcare centre is the worst within the jurisdiction of the Kosofe Local Government Area in terms of service delivery due to infrastructural deficits and shortage of manpower.
According to residents who spoke to SaharaReporters, the facility is poorly equipped and understaffed which has been making access to adequate health service difficult for the people of the community.
For instance, SaharaReporters gathered that on Thursday morning, all the residents that visited the centre to seek medical attention were referred to another healthcare centre in a different community due to the absence of a medical doctor to attend to them.
A resident said, “When I get to the health centre this morning, they have to tell all of us to go to Ogudu. They only attend to one person.”
“They said that the doctor is not available and that they will not be available today. Then, they asked me to come to Ogudu. It is only the pregnant woman they were attending to. I took my baby there from Alagbole, now I am here to buy another card,” another resident added.
Lanre Adeyehun, the president of the community youth forum, said the problem has been persisting since the tenure of Babatunde Raji Fashola. He claimed that the government continued to neglect his community’s plight despite several pleas relentlessly from all the residents.
He said, “Just imagine that you are in a critical health situation and you decide to visit your community health centre only to be told the doctor won't be available for the day. Most of the patients today at Oworonshoki primary health centre are being referred to Ogudu health centre on the ground that there is no doctor to attend to them. And on getting to Ogudu, some of them are being told to come back tomorrow due to a shortage of medical staff to attend to them. It's only in Lagos you have a self-acclaimed mega city with hospitals without doctors.”
Also, Towolawi Jamiu, the Public Relations Officer of the community youths forum, said that the health centre could only boast of one doctor which was too small to cater to the number of patients that visited the centre daily.
“Oworonshoki primary health centre is the worst within the local Government as it does not work 24 hours compare to the one in Ogudu and hardly could you find a doctor to attend to you whenever you visit the health centre. The health centre is poorly equipped, badly understaffed and can boast of just one functional doctor. It is sheer wickedness for a community of over 100,000 population not to boast of a functional and well-equipped health centre that runs for 24 hours,” he said.