Residents of Gurdi community in Abaji Area Council of the FCT have bemoaned the lack of drugs and water in the health centre in the community.
Some of the villagers, who spoke with Abuja Metro, said they have to go to Yaba or Abaji town to buy drugs whenever they are given prescriptions.
They also said the health centre had no tap water, adding that patients’ relatives always brought water in buckets from their homes or trekked to the river to fetch water for use at the health facility.
He said patients’ relations, especially those with pregnant women about to put to bed, often trekked long distances to get water for delivery, adding that locals from the neighbouring villages in Niger State also patronise the centre.
Malam Ibrahim Saidu, a resident of the community, who spoke to our reporter, said lack of drugs and water are the major challenges facing residents of the community when it comes to healthcare.
He said since the health centre was built under the SURE-P project in 2013, patients mostly bought drugs from either Yaba or Abaji town, adding that the facility also has no water supply.
“The major challenges we are facing in this community’s health centre are lack of drugs and tap water, as relations of patients who are admitted in the health centre have to bring water from their homes,’’ he said.
Mrs Halima Abdullahi, a mother of five, who was with a patient on admission at the health centre, was seen handing over the list of some prescribed drugs to her husband to buy from far away to Yaba town.
She said, “You can see my husband just left the health centre on motorcycle to buy some drugs prescribed for us for our daughter on admission.
“If you go round the health centre, there is no water. I have to use jerrican to fetch water from home and bring here, which is another challenge we are facing here.’’
Our reporter, who went round the facility observed some bed spaces were empty, while some patients, including a pregnant woman, were seen waiting to be attended to by the health personnel.
It was also observed that some parts of the ceiling of the health facility are coming off, even though, both male and female wards appeared tidy including the surroundings.
Mohammed Gimba, a health personnel at the facility, said lack of enough manpower, water and fencing are the major challenges facing them at the centre.
He said since he was posted to the health centre some years ago, he has been the only medical personnel handling patients at the facility. “Except for two casual staff who are from this community that have been supporting me,” he said.
He said the health centre has no water, adding that he sometimes engaged people to fetch water for him from the river.
He said the health centre serves not only people of the community but also patients from neighbouring villages including some from Niger State.
“We know Gurdi shares borders with some villages such as Kapako, Zago, Kwashimi, Kace, Kpando and Mayaki communities which are all under Niger State and some patients mostly prefer coming here for treatment because of the proximity,” he said.
Gimba said the facility requires fencing for the safety of equipment and patients that are sometimes admitted at the health centre.
He also complained of lack of mobility, saying he hires a motorcycle whenever he is going to the neigbouring villages for outreach and appealed to the authorities of the council to provide him with the means of mobility.
Reacting, an official of the health department of the council, who preferred not to be named, said the department had already received complaints from health personnel at Gurdi Health Centre and that the request had been forwarded to the council chairman, Alhaji Abubakar Umar Abdullahi.
“Actually, the man who is in charge of the health centre in the Gurdi community was directed to forward some of those pressing challenges to the council chairman for action,” he said.
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