RESEARCH has identified absenteeism, informal payments, procurement and employment corruption as some of the leading sleazes at the grassroots level of Nigeria’s healthcare.
The findings were from research by lecturers and researchers from the College of Medicine, University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus (UNEC), Nsukka and Bayero University, Kano.
The research revealed the negative impacts of corruption on healthcare services, particularly at community levels.
Presenting the snapshot of the research findings since 2017 at a two-day meeting in Abuja on Wednesday, February 28 and Thursday, February 29, one of the researchers, Aloysius Odii, a lecturer at UNEC, stated that different kinds of absenteeism among healthcare workers emerged as a significant problem to effective healthcare delivery.
Odii said the group used in-depth interventions, surveys, discrete choice experiments, observation and experimental research in the work, which focused on Enugu and Kano States.
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He noted the instances of staff members frequently absent from their duties and leaving duty posts before the scheduled time without legitimate reasons.
Odii stated that political backing, inefficient system structures, gender roles and social norms were common causes of absenteeism at work.
He explained that the Health Policy Research Group (HPRG) has done a lot of research on corruption in the health sector since 2017, adding that their task had been to provide evidence to make people understand the seriousness of the issue.
In his remark, the Coordinator of the research group, Obinna Onwuyekwe, a professor at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), said the meeting was to formalise the Health Anticorruption Project Advisory Committee (HAPAC), which would help to drive the fight against corruption in the nation’s health sector.
Speaking on the possible solutions to some of the highlighted problems, he stressed that HAPAC would look at feasible solutions that could be implemented at the grassroots level.
Also, speaking on the development, a professor of Medicine at UNEC, Chinyere Mbachu, said the meeting was important to design interventions based on evidence gathered, that would address corruption at the primary health centres.
“We have our work focused in Enugu and Kano. But we know that whatever is happening in those states is also happening in the rest of the country, and it becomes very important that we constitute a committee of influential people, experienced people in the health sector who can advise on what we are doing as a research group, as well as also offer advise on anti-corruption policies in the health sector.
She also emphasised the importance of addressing corruption at the grassroots, noting that community healthcare touched people’s lives directly.
Meanwhile, several other health stakeholders presented at the meeting recommended possible solutions to the issue of corruption in the health sector.
While highlighting the importance of briefing health users on relevant information, the group called for improved sensitisation of the public on free services and urged the government to provide funds across primary healthcare centres and introduce automated payment systems to curb funds diversion into private pockets.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M