Policy Value and Primary Healthcare Delivery in Rural Nigeria: Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities

Introduction

The greatest asset of any nation is its citizens. The quality and quantity of the human resource of a nation is essential for its growth and development. There is a sense in which one can assert that a healthy nation is a wealthy nation. Good health among the population of any country is considered a pre-requisite for the society to develop in the positive direction. Achieving this goal of good health for all is not always an easy task. Though with the right policies, plans and programs aimed at achieving these goals a healthy nation could be achieved if particularly, such objective is pursued with utmost commitment, dedication and integrity by all stakeholders in the health sector (Osakede & Ijimakinde, 2014).

Africa in general and Nigeria in particular, have a population that can be leveraged on to bring about the much-needed socio-economic development in this region of the world. Nigeria with a population of over 170 million people, has the potential to be one of the most developed countries in the world. However, these potentials have not been properly harnessed, invested and translated into sustainable development due perhaps to the poor healthcare system that has seen many Nigerians die from preventable and treatable diseases and ailments like malaria, Lassa fever, Zika virus, Ebola, monkey pox, polio meningitis, HIV/AIDS, among others (Idris, 2014). Also, the rate of maternal and child mortality has taken a frightening dimension due to the absence of vaccines and drugs to control and treat these ailments and diseases when they occur.

The main objective of the study, therefore, is to examine the role of policy value in primary healthcare delivery in rural Nigeria. Other specific objectives include:

• 1.

  To examine the nature of primary healthcare services;

• 2.

  To investigate the effect of policy value on primary healthcare delivery in rural areas, and;

• 3.

  To examine challenges facing the use of public policy to achieve primary healthcare.

Background

While successive governments have demonstrated knowledge of and intentions to tackle these healthcare issues, the government policy value or lack of it has inhibited any such intention to address. While annual budgets have given some attention to these concerns albeit insufficiently, the lack of policy integrity, corruption, failure to give adequate commitment to policy implementation and the parlous state of the economy, all combine to frustrate any positive move to make the health sector efficient and effective. These challenges are mostly felt in the rural areas where health facilities are either non-existent or ill equipped and far apart. The condition of rural dwellers is made worst by the fact that majority of them are living below the poverty line, thereby making them susceptible to attack from preventable diseases. Primary Heath Care (PHC) that is targeted at this category of people, hardly meet their needs due to the incapacitation of local governments by inadequate resources.

How these issues play out in the health sector in general and Primary Health Care sub-sector in particular, are not very clear. Hence, this study aims at investigating the interface between policy value and primary healthcare delivery with a view to making them work for the growth and sustainability of primary health care in the country. To address issues raised in the study, it is organized into the following sections. The first section engaged in literature review under which it engages in conceptual and theoretical exploration. The second, interrogated the nature of policy value and primary health care in the country. Third examined the state of policy values and healthcare system. The fourth discussed some steps taken by government through policy reforms and changes to improve generally the condition of the health sector. The fifth analyzed challenges facing PHC articulation, implementation and control. The sixth charted a roadmap for the PHC sub-sector and healthcare system in general.