By Musa Adamu
The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has commended the on-going effort by the Kano state government in collaboration with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) at renovating the dilapidated Dausara Primary Health Care Centre, in Ungogo Local Government Area of Kano state.
In a statement signed by its Executive Director, Auwal Musa Ibrahim, CISLAC said the development would end the suffering long endured by the people.
It said the policy of neglect had rendered the facility monumentally inefficient to discharge maternal and child healthcare services.
It said: “We recall that in the mid-2017, CISLAC with support from Macarthur Foundation supported journalists across Kano, Kaduna, Katsina and Jigawa states on field investigation to undercover and report maternal health budget allocation, release and utilisation in the respective states.
“The rigorous investigative process by the journalists in Kano state uprooted and exposed issues with alarming reports, pointing at the ill-equipped and pitiable condition of Dausara Primary Health Care Centre that had denied pregnant mothers accessibility and rendered them hopeless seeking for desired medical attention in the community.
“We are not unaware and regret that the precarious situation had resulted in the death 3 pregnant women in 2016 at the facility which hosted patients from neighbouring communities like Malamawa, Hayin Rimaye, Dan Kunkuru, Zango, Adaraye, Inusawa, Kuriwa, Dauni, amongst others.”
It queried what it called worrisome the “ill-funded and obsolete Primary Health Care facilities across the country have not only contributed to the high rate of maternal and child deaths, but also constitute the major impediments rendering the states incapacitated to effectively domesticate and implement the Primary Health Care provisions, as enshrined in the National Health Act 2014.”
While we applaud the on-going initiative to save the lives of mothers and children in Dausara community, the statement added, “we therefore, urge extension and replication of such enabling provision across Primary Healthcare facilities with devised sustainable funding mechanism for the facilities to achieve their established objectives.”
