We Need Adequate Child Spacing Equipment, Commodities – Kaduna Health Worker Appeal to State Government
By Alex Uangbaoje, Kaduna
Officer in Charge of Comprehensive Health Centre, Angwan Maichibi, Kaduna South Local Government Area, Mrs. Hauwa Danladi, has said the major challenge faced with in the Family Planning Unit of the centre is lack of adequate and sufficient equipments and commodities to carter for the demands of people seeking for Child Spacing services in the community.
She therefore appealed to the State Government to give more attention to the centre as part of her drive to reduce maternal deaths in the state.
The officer in charge made the appeal when she received a team of Child Spacing Media Forum, supported by Development Communication (DevComs) Network, powered by Nigeria Urban Reproductive Health Initiative (NURHI) on Tuesday.
The health facility which was established in 2013, according to, Mrs. Danladi, has only two trained out three staff working in the unit.
“We have high clients inflow here, we attend to at least 73 people every month, with virtually no equipment to work with, we are only managing the little we have.
“The truth is that we need model equipments here, there are no enough equipment here to work with compare to where I was transferred from.
“We do receive consumables from nearby health centres like the one at Television village and Barnawa, and demand for service here is high.
“We provide services for both men and women of child bearing age and most of the women prefer 3 years implant and the men come for condoms. We offer them these services at no cost, we only collect little money; like #50 when we need to hand gloves.” She explained.
The story was different at Primary Health Centre, Makera also in Kaduna South which has been enjoying NURHI support.
Speaking with the media team, Service Provider at the PHC, Zainab Muhammed, said, though the centre have enough equipments, how their major challenge is under staff.
Zainab added that the centre receives between 120 to 200 clients every month, but that only her attend to all of them. She further stated that sometimes some of them have to be referred to the General Hospital in the area.
“We work from Monday through Fridays, 9am to 2pm, we almost all the commodities available; injectables, implants etc, is only the permanent ones we don’t have. When clients come needing the permanent ones, we counsel them and refer them to Gwamna Awan Hospital. She said.
On his part, representative of DevComs, Iliya Kure, had earlier said the essence of the tour was go round some facilities currently being supported by NURHI to acquit journalists with Child Spacing services being provided by NURHI and to also visit other facilities that are currently not providing Child Spacing services in other to see in what areas the media can advocate for government interventions.
