Nigeria

Nigeria

Introduction

The efficiency and competence of a health care system of a country helps in meeting the health care problems and goals. Public health is the most underlying factor of national security, which not only provides health care facilities to communities, but continuously monitors and makes an effort to promote health care system all over the world. According to World Health organization, (2005) Nigeria is a nation which has a population of 127.117 million covering an area of approximately 924 thousand square kilometers. It is the most populous country of West Africa which has suffered through a lot of health care issues and diseases (Osain MW, 2011).

Discussions

Health care delivery system

According to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2000), the overall health care performance of Nigeria, is very low when compared with other African countries. It ranks 187 out of 191 countries for health service performance, and not much change has achieved since then. According to many reviews on Nigeria, the annual budget for health is below 5%, which does not even cover the primary health care services.

The Nigerian health care and distribution system includes orthodox, alternative and traditional system of delivery. The health care institutions of Nigeria consist of a hierarchical pyramid. It consists of three main level of health care delivery system. The first level is the primary level which is the entry path in the health care delivery system it consists of maternity/home based clinics, dispensaries and health posts. The first level is used for the treatment of cold, malaria and fever. The second level of health care, deals with both general and specialized services of health like pediatrics, obstetrics, gynecology and surgeries. The third level of health institution consists of hospitals for specialized and complicated cases (Ademiluyi.A, Arowab. A, 2009)

Health care system and its distribution

According to the 2011 review, the main reason behind the poor delivery of health care services is because of the increase in cost, minimum monetary fund and also because of ineffective health performances and the continual increase in diseases. Health benefits including physical structure, health personnel and technological equipments are inadequate especially in rural areas. A pharmacist in Nigeria observed that the social, technological and economic factors also influence the health care performances and the delivery system. Nigeria, is an underdeveloped country, it has been suffering from many communicable infective diseases which include HIV/AIDS patients, Tuberculosis, malaria and also Dracunculiasis. The victims of ...