The 2023 National Health Facility Survey (NHFS), released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), reveals that no region in Nigeria has 50% access to functional basic medical equipment in health facilities.
The survey highlights significant regional disparities, with the South-West leading at 48.8%, followed by the South-South at 43.7%, the North-East at 34.2%, the South-East at 32.3%, the North-Central at 22.8%, and the North-West at 20.9%.
The survey was conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and supported by the World Bank.
The report identifies several key challenges contributing to these gaps, such as the lack of healthcare facilities in certain communities, outdated or broken equipment, inadequate medical personnel, poor quality of service, and an ineffective referral system.
A health facility mapping and listing exercise was conducted to create an up-to-date list of all health facilities in Nigeria, with 3,330 facilities randomly sampled across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Availability of basic medical equipment
The report revealed that 68% of Secondary Health Facilities (SHFs) and 29.9% of public Primary Health Facilities (PHFs) have functional basic medical equipment.
Basic medical equipment, as defined in the survey, includes weighing scales, thermometers, stethoscopes, blood pressure (BP) apparatus, and examination lights, all of which were considered available and functioning at the time of the survey.
Family planning and antenatal care services
The result shows that 18.5% of facilities had Family Planning pills, 19.5% had injectables, 20.5% had male condoms, and 17.8% had implants/Intrauterine devices (IUDs).
Regarding Antenatal Care (ANC) services, the average percentage of public health facilities providing ANC was 79.7%, with the highest in the South-South (88.9%) and the lowest in the North-West (67.9%).
Additionally, 94.0% of Primary Health Facilities provide iron supplements as part of ANC services, while 97.4% offer folic acid.
Essential drugs availability
The survey also assessed the availability of essential drugs, defined as the percentage of essential drugs available and not expired in health facilities during the survey.
- The findings showed that 50.6% of essential drugs were available in SHFs, while 34.3% were available in PHFs.
- Immunization services in public health facilities
- Regarding immunization services, the survey indicated that various vaccines were available at public health facilities during the survey.
- Measles antigen was available in 51.9% of facilities, Pentavalent in 51%, and Oral Polio in 52%.
- Other available vaccines included BCG (51%), Rotavirus (47.3%), and Pneumococcal (45.8%).
- Additional vaccines available were Inactivated Polio (48.6%), Human Papillomavirus (37.7%), Tetanus Toxoid/Tetanus Diphtheria (49%), Yellow Fever (50%), and Meningitis (48.1%).
Insights from the NHFS report
- The 2023 NHFS offers a thorough evaluation of the state of healthcare facilities in Nigeria, providing critical insights into their preparedness and capacity to deliver essential health services.
- The survey aims to help healthcare managers at various levels evaluate performance and identify weaknesses that need to be addressed to improve service delivery.
- It also seeks to assess the quality of care and the availability and readiness of secondary facilities to better understand their capacity to provide services.
