- Government promises renovations
Some rural dwellers in Osun State have cried out to the state government to urgently renovate healthcare centres in their various communities, lamenting that the deteriorating state of the facilities were discouraging patients from accessing them.
They said their primary and comprehensive health centres are gradually collapsing and that reptiles have already taken over them.
One of the affected facilities, according to them, is the Comprehensive Healthcare Centre, Konda area, Ilobu, Irepodun Local Government Area of the state.
Aside from its bushy environment, the hospital has rusty and tattered rooftops in several sections, which further attests to the fact that the healthcare facility is grossly neglected.
It was gathered that lack of maintenance of the hospital since 2001, when the administration of former governor, Bisi Akande constructed and commissioned the building, has resulted in a deteriorated facility. From broken roofs to poor power supply, bushy environment, rustic equipment and broken windows without mosquito net.
The unfortunate condition, where wasps compete for space with patients, is a stark contrast to its once-conducive environment as stated by past staff of the medical facility and residents of the community.
The flooded reception area and the compromised state of patient records highlight the urgent need for improvements. The laboratory room featured a broken rooftop and abandoned equipment.
Residents said the hospital could no longer provide basic services to them.
According to a community leader who preferred to remain anonymous because he is a civil servant, several doctors posted to the hospital have demanded for transfer due to the appalling state of the facility.
He said, “It is disheartening that such a crucial healthcare facility has been left in a state that may deter people from seeking essential medical services.
Several medical doctors and senior nurses posted here in the last few years have demanded transfers as they found this facility inhospitable. The community has written to the government at different times but no results.”
A resident of Atoyebi, Basiru Adegbite, one of the adjourning communities said the hospital serves Ilobu, Erin-Osun, Okinni, Alapupu and some parts of Ifon-Osun, said, “When this hospital was running perfectly, people came from different places such as Ifon, Erin, Osogbo and other communities because it’s the only secondary facility around.
“But due to lack of maintenance and poor facilities, patients stopped coming. This was the first point of referral from Primary Healthcare Centres in Ilobu, Erin and other areas.”
Adegbite pleaded with the government to revitalise the facility and make it functional.
A septuagenarian woman whose house is opposite the hospital, said pregnant women have stopped visiting the hospital for antenatal care, noting that current staff only work till 6pm and shut the facility afterwards.
Meanwhile, the Special Adviser to Governor Ademola Adeleke on Public Health, Adekunle Akindele ascribed the rots to the neglect by the past administrations of former Governors Rauf Aregbesola and Adegboyega Oyetola, adding that the problem in Osun health sector “spreads across and not limited to Konda CHC.”
Akindele said, “The state of the facility is the general status of all sectors of the state. Before the present government, we had 12 years of uninterrupted administration of APC, and in those 12 years, most of these facilities were not attended to, especially the secondary health facilities.”
He, however, said the present administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke has commenced rehabilitation of 345 PHCs, adding that those of secondary facilities would soon commence.
