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In the build-up to 2019 general elections, Governor Sanwo-Olu released his Manifesto Document tagged "T.H.E.M.E.S." which included the promise to "Ensure minimum of 3 doctors, 3 nurses and 5 community health workers in all 345 PHCs by 2021".
The Promise made by the Governor can be classified as being bogus due to the level of brain drain that the healthcare sector has been facing. A report by the Nigerian Medical Association uncovers that more than 9,000 Nigerian-trained medical doctors moved to the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States of America between 2016 and 2018.
In finding out if the Governor has kept his promises of ensuring a minimum of 3 doctors, 3 nurses and 5 community health workers in all 345 PHCs by 2021", This year, we visited several primary healthcare centres across the zones in Lagos. Only 2 of the Primary Healthcare Centres agreed to provide us data. Many of the staff in the PHCs, visibly afraid of losing their jobs, refused to speak with us.
Due to our respect for privacy as outlined in our editorial guidelines and also to protect the staff of the PHCs, we won't provide names.
The First PHC revealed that they had 4 doctors but lost 2 of them to the challenge of brain drain, that implies they are left with 2 doctors which is not up to the number the Governor promised. They also revealed that they have 9 nurses and 5 community workers which is in line with what the Governor promised.
"We have only two doctors for now, we were having 4 before but 2 relocated outside the country. For the nurses, I think about 9 nurses. We have up to 5 community health workers" one of the interviewees said.
The Second PHC revealed that they have only one doctor, one nurse and one community health worker. This number is clearly contrary to the promise made by the Governor. The interviewees agreed that the shortage of medical personnel have many effects such as doctor burnout, work related stress and medical negligence; all negatively impact patient experience, patient health outcomes and job satisfaction of health workers.
"We have only one doctor, one nurse and 2 community health workers. This number doesn't cater for the needs but you know we have shortage of medical personnel in Nigeria." said one of the interviewees
The Promise by the Governor clearly state that all the PHCs will have a minimum of 3 doctors, 3 nurses and 5 community health workers by 2021.
This implies that 2 primary healthcare centres is more than enough to say the Governor has failed on his promise, coupled with the fact that this research was carried out in 2022.
We rate this Promise Broken