Using scientific evidence to improve healthcare in Nigerian slums: an evolving story of hope and possibilities

Nigerian “ghettos” deserve quality health services
Popularly referred to as “ghettos”, slums have remained in Nigeria, inhabited by those who may not afford to live in well-off urban locations. About 50% of Nigeria’s population live in slums, and there are predictions that more people will relocate to slums if life continues to be difficult.
There have been many positive and negative stories about Nigerian slums. On the positive side, we have heard of several entertainment stars that emerged from slums, including football stars, and very talented technocrats. In fact, the image that is painted for most of Nigerians is that success stories may be incomplete without mentioning living in the slum at a time.
And on the negative stories of slums, we hear about several cases of violence, poor access to sanitation and hygiene, quick spread of diseases, and overall poor living conditions. As regards health, it is of deep concern to the Health Policy Research Group, University of Nigeria (HPRG), that amidst the sufferings in slums, basic quality and safe healthcare is difficult to come by.
HPRG believes that since the government has been slow in improving the overall living conditions in slums or improving lives generally, such that slums will no longer be needed, there should at least be some attention paid to the healthcare of those living in slums.
 
What is HPRG doing to change the face of healthcare in slums?
Slums are not actually in lack of healthcare services, but the problem is that many of those health services are informal, coming from untrained people. In these slums, people rely on those they call ‘chemists’ (technically referred to as Patent Medicine Vendors [PMVs]), traditional birth attendants who are women that help other women to deliver children in their homes, bone setters, and other traditional healers. These informal health providers are well respected in slums, even though they are not trained and they make medical errors that could take lives.
But then, is it possible that the Nigerian government which spends just about 5% of its annual budget on the health sector can build enough health facilities and employ enough health workers that can serve all the slums in the country that house above 100 million persons?
You will agree that the above question is rhetorical, especially when experts are saying that even the appropriated 5% is yet to yield an actual health value of 5%. Therefore, health systems actors like HPRG, Ministries of Health, Primary Healthcare Agencies, healthcare unions, etc., must begin to think differently about improving healthcare in slums using available resources.
 
The strategy of linking informal health providers to a formal health system
Recall the untrained people providing healthcare services in slums – the PMVs, traditional birth attendants, etc.? Do you think they are useful?
Interestingly, HPRG on the CHORUS urban health project has been conducting a study on health service delivery in urban slums. The team has mapped out many informal and formal providers in slums in Enugu and Onitsha and can affirm that a lot of informal health service deliveries go on in slums. Informal providers in slums help their neighbours to deliver children, treat them for malaria/fever and several illnesses, help them to correct dislocated and fractured bones, etc. So, indeed, we can give them flowers because they are doing what they can to meet the health needs of their neighbours who are poor, not so educated, and may not be able to access good health facilities because they are not available. Nevertheless, not so many of these cases turn out successful. Thus, what should we do?
In the urban health study conducted by HPRG, the research thinktank has seen that it is possible to pull these informal providers into a formal system that can monitor their activities, provide them with responsive health facilities where they can make quick referrals, train them to know the scope of health issues they can handle and how to offer basic attention to them, and importantly, identify and sanction those informal providers that continue to be a threat to safe healthcare for those living in slums.
 
Stakeholders continue to converge to shape and implement the findings from HPRG
In what is technically referred to as “co-creation of interventions”, HPRG has pulled together stakeholders from diverse sectors to chart ways forward for safe and quality healthcare in slums. The sectors include, The State Ministry of Health in Enugu, State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Community Leadership, Unions of informal and formal providers, informal and formal frontline healthcare providers, and the academia. The first co-creation meeting was held between February 6 and 9, 2023, and the second, held on 25th May 2023.
 
Resolutions from the co-creation meetings so far
The stakeholders have agreed that to guarantee quality and safe healthcare in slums, three areas of focus should include governance, service delivery, and information management. Across the three areas, the proposal which will be implemented includes among others:
  • Establishing a desk office at the Ministry of Health to coordinate the linkage of the informal health providers into an efficient formal health system.
  • Through the desk office, identifying, registering, and training informal health providers to understand the scope of health services they can offer.
  • Ensure that the desk office works with focal persons in the slums to monitor activities of informal providers to be consistent with safety.
  • Providing a standard guide for referrals from the informal to the formal, including a simple referral form.
  • Training informal providers on some good practices in health service delivery that can enable them to perform quality basic care and to know when to refer cases exceeding their scope to functional formal health facilities around them.
  • Provide data collection tools for all activities within the informal health space in the slums and the connections with the formal health system.
In all, the policymakers, providers, community leaders, and representatives of the unions of the providers are appreciative of the findings coming from the urban health study being conducted by HPRG. They have looked through the interventions and have agreed that the interventions are feasible to implement. Steps have been designed on how to go about implementing the interventions, and in the coming months, it is believed that reasonable progress will be made to make the healthcare space in slums to be safe.
 
Acknowledgment of contributors
Prince Agwu (PhD)
Chinyere Mbachu (MBBS, FWACP)
Obinna Onwujekwe (MBBS, PhD)
 
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Unfavorable working conditions in primary health centers are hindering access to sexual and reproductive health services for young people in Nigeria

Some facts about the sexual and reproductive health of young people
Adolescents in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) contribute an estimated 21 million pregnancies yearly. Half of these pregnancies are unplanned, and half of them end in unsafe abortions.
One in every five girls in Nigeria between ages 15 and 19 has commenced childbearing. Early childbearing has negative consequences on the physical and mental health of girls. Up to 50% of dropout among adolescent girls is caused by teenage pregnancy.
The risk of acquiring a sexually transmitted infection (STI) is highest among young people aged 15–24. The most recent National HIV & AIDS and Reproductive Health Survey (NARHS) reported that about 9.8% of young people in Nigeria experienced symptoms of STI in the year preceding the survey.
 
Primary health centres are not meeting the SRH needs of young people
One way to ensure that young people have access to lifesaving SRH information and services is through viable social services like counselling and youth-friendly centres. Unfortunately, such centres are scarce in Nigeria, creating the need for replacements through primary health centres (PHCs). PHCs are well-positioned to address the SRH needs of young people due to the availability of trained health workers, and the possibility of finding social service professionals like social workers and psychologists to work in primary healthcare facilities.
“Think about the 17-year-old pregnant Sophia who resides in a remote village in Nigeria where the only skilled health worker is in the PHC, or the 21-year-old Jimoh who has an STI and his only access to proper treatment is the PHC.”
The reality here is that the PHC should be the rallying point for young people who need SRH services such as counselling, contraceptives, treatment of STIs, maternity care and post-abortion care. However, PHCs in their current state do not appeal to young people. They (young people) prefer to go elsewhere when they need SRH services, and their reasons are linked to the attitudes of health workers.
The big question here, is – “How do health workers repel young people from PHCs, and why?”
 
Findings from a stakeholder consultation workshop
Researchers from the Health Policy Research Group, University, University of Nigeria, held a two-day stakeholder consultation workshop at Abakaliki, Ebonyi State on the 3rd and 4th of May, 2023 with stakeholders in adolescent sexual and reproductive health. In attendance, were: relevant officials from the State Ministries of Health, Women Affairs, Youth, Sports, and Social Development, as well as officials from the Ebonyi State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, implementing partners, facility health managers and representatives of adolescents.
 
Stakeholders lamented that inefficiencies in the Primary Health Care system make it difficult for primary healthcare workers to provide sexual and reproductive health services to young people
 
 
In the table below, we highlight how these inefficiencies are making PHCs less appealing to young people, that is the ‘whys’ and the ‘hows’ respectively.
The ‘hows’ The ‘whys’
PHCs are not open in the late afternoons or evenings (that is after school or work hours) when young people are able to access services PHCs do not have the number of health workers that are required to provide 24-hour services
The skilled health workers are not available in the PHCs in the evenings. There is no provision for accommodation for skilled health workers. Or the available accommodation is poorly maintained and not livable. Absence of security in the facilities to provide cover at night for health workers and epileptic power supply with little or no provision of an alternative means of power supply  
PHC workers do not have the skills or training to provide the services that young people need Many PHCs are manned by unskilled health workers such as community health extension workers. The State government has not employed skilled health workers to replace the retired workforce and there are no qualified social service professionals like social workers and psychologists. 
The design of the PHC may not be appealing to young people and may discourage them from seeking care Many PHCs do not have separate entrances and exits for young people. There is no provision for secluded spaces for young people to receive care
Poorly motivated PHC health workers may affect their attitude toward providing friendly care Many of the health workers at the PHCs are either unpaid volunteers or underpaid workers
Non-provision of certain SRH services to young people who come to seek care Religious beliefs and personal values of health workers conflict with their provision of contraceptive services to young people. Health workers are constrained by the restrictive abortion laws in the country
 
What is the way forward?
  • The stakeholders agreed that there is a need for continuous advocacy to the State government to employ more health workers and social service professionals in the facilities.
  • There is a need to integrate the volunteer health workers formally into the health workforce so that they receive payment for their services. This will improve the motivation of these health workers who are a major contributor to the staff strength of the PHCs.
  • The State government should channel funding to improve the working conditions and environment in the PHCs. The Basic Health Provision Fund (BHCF) can be leveraged in funding things that are allowed by the tenet of the funding.
  • PHC-model which is young people-friendly and welcoming to young people was proposed to enable the PHCs to be the first port of call for young people.
  • The research team will go further to implement co-designed intervention strategies at the PHC level to make SRH services more appealing to young people.
 
Acknowledgement of contributors
Chinazom Ekwueme (MBBS, MWACP) Prince Agwu (PhD)
Ifunanya Agu (MSc) Chinyere Mbachu (MBBS, FWACP)
Irene Eze (MBBS, FWACP) Obinna Onwujekwe (MBBS, PhD)
 
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