In Nigeria, there are three types of healthcare systems namely tertiary, secondary and primary healthcare systems. Each of the health care systems in Nigeria addressed varying complexity of health issues. This article would discuss the three types of healthcare systems in Nigeria and the type of medical care they provide to Nigerians and other legal residents. Keep on reading to find out.
The types of healthcare systems in Nigeria would be discussed below:
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Primary Health Care System
In Nigeria, the primary health care system is usually the first point of contact for the majority of the population with the national health system. This type of health care system comprises primary health care centres situated in every local government area to bring health closer to the people. Primary health care caters to addressing non-emergency, preventative health care issues of the population. Primary health care provides medical evaluations to patients with all types of acute and chronic health issues, provides treatments, promotes health education, and refers patients in need of more specialized services to secondary or tertiary health care.
At primary health care facilities, patients are typically seen by primary care physicians (also known as general practitioners or family doctors), however, in some cases, the patients may be first seen by other health care professionals such as a pharmacist or physiotherapist. The proximity of primary health care centres to the population facilitates the continuity of medical care that support full recovery, routine check-ups, and preventive medical care. The medical professionals at primary health care facilities usually possess a range of knowledge in many areas to enable them to provide care to patients of all ages, gender, and medical issue.
Unfortunately, the state of primary health care in Nigeria is below satisfactory as only 20 percent of the 30,000 plus primary health care systems are fully functional to provide essential primary health care services to the population. The reasons for the abysmal state of the primary health care system in Nigeria include but are not limited to poor staffing, a dearth of medical professionals, poor infrastructure, and the lack of a regular supply of essential drugs.
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Secondary Health Care System
The secondary health care system in Nigeria comprises general and state hospitals, as well as private secondary facilities. Secondary health care focuses on providing in-patient specialist treatment and support to those who have been referred from primary health care. The healthcare professionals in secondary healthcare facilities specialize in helping patients who struggle with more complex health conditions that require specific expert care such as pneumonia, cancer, severe infections, and broken bones. At secondary healthcare facilities, patients are usually seen by medical professionals with expertise in their unique health challenges. Some of the specialist medical professionals in secondary health care include psychiatrists, cardiologists, pediatricians, gynecologists,
The medical services offered by secondary health care include medical evaluation, diagnostics, treatments, and surgical interventions. In Nigeria, this level of health care system accounts for a substantial amount of medical services to the Nigerian population since some patients usually opt for secondary health care system when the primary health care facilities are unable to cater to their basic medical needs. Although most secondary health care facilities require that patients possess prior referrals from primary health care centres before being attended to, others do not.
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Tertiary Health Care System
The tertiary health care system is the highest form of specialized medical care in Nigeria. Patients with complicated and more severe health are usually referred to tertiary healthcare facilities by primary and secondary healthcare systems. The sort of medical care provided in tertiary healthcare systems is mostly performed by medical professionals with expertise and more specialized state-of-art equipment. The medical services performed in the tertiary health care system include the management of diseases, neurosurgery, diagnostics, cardiac surgery, palliative interventions, transplant surgery, intensive care, advanced diagnostics, and more.
The health care facilities that undertake tertiary health care in the country are the Federal Teaching and Specialist Hospitals which are situated in every state across Nigeria. Some examples of tertiary healthcare facilities in Nigeria include Lagos University Teaching Hospital, University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, University College Hospital, and much more.
The state of health care delivery in Nigeria falls short of being satisfactory, especially in primary health care and secondary health care systems. The reasons for the deficiency in the country’s health system stem from several factors. First is the lack of adequate funding for the health sector. In April 2001, members of the African Union (AU) met in Abuja concerning the deplorable condition of health care in their countries. To close the gap, the AU agreed upon the Abuja Declaration which stipulated that a minimum of 15 percent of the budgets of member countries be allocated to health care. For 21 years since the Abuja Declaration, none of the health care allocation from the national budget has ever been up to the agreed-upon 15 percent. In fact, the allocation of 1.17 trillion Naira to healthcare for the 2023 fiscal year, which is 5.75 percent of the total budget, has been the highest yet. With the allocation to healthcare being this low, compared to the total budget, much is still required to improve the quality of healthcare delivery in Nigeria.
Alongside the lack of funding, other problems in health care delivery in Nigeria include acute shortage of basic amenities, obsolete equipment, poor maintenance culture, poor and uncoordinated referral system, lack of proper feedback mechanisms in the referral system, lack of a proper health information system, lack of capacity building for healthcare service providers, and the lack of involvement of the citizenry in community participation and ownership in health care. Another major problem is the increasing brain drain of medical healthcare professionals from Nigeria. In a similar vein, the size of health care professionals in the primary health care system is quite low as the available workforce rather work in the secondary and tertiary health care systems, thus causing a shortage of skilled workforce to attend to the majority of the population that depend on PHC as the point of first contact with the national health system.