The Vision · Commitment 03
Healthcare Access
The measure of a health system is the distance between a sick child and working care. In too much of Benue, that distance is still measured in hours. It should be measured in minutes.
Where Benue Stands
For most Benue families, health care begins, and too often ends, at the primary health centre. Where these centres are staffed, stocked and open, common illness stays common; where they are not, malaria, complicated deliveries and childhood disease become tragedies that arithmetic could have prevented.
The gaps are widest where roads are worst: riverine Agatu, the Kwande highlands, the displaced settlements of the north. A young federal university of health sciences in Otukpo now trains the workers of tomorrow; the task is making sure their skills reach the village, not only the city.
What Must Change
- Primary health centres that are staffed, stocked, and open
- Maternal care that makes safe delivery the norm in every community
- Health outreach that reaches the village, not only the city
- Public accountability for health budgets and facility conditions
How Progress Is Measured
- Functioning primary health centres, counted and published LGA by LGA
- Skilled attendance at birth rising in rural communities
- Outreach days held where the roads end
- Health budgets traceable from allocation to medicine shelf