Challenges of Healthcare Practice in a Developing Economy: a Report of a Year Practice in a Primary Health Care Centre in South-Eastern Nigeria

Presenter: Olawale Oladimeji, Ebonyi State University Teaching Hospital

Abstract

With the current global emphasis on the Millennium Development Goals which is meant to eradicate poverty and improve health and other socio-economic conditions by 2015 and also WHO campaign on Health for All, the effects a developing economy has on healthcare practice is of great concern.

The aim of this study is to find out if and how a developing economy affects healthcare practice; its effects on willingness of sick people to seek for healthcare, the types of diseases that often present at the Primary Health Centre and facilities available that people have access to.

Data of patients that presented at the Primary Health Centre during the period of study were collected with emphasis on age, gender, family and social history, diagnosis made and stage of presentation of the disease. Also the facilities and care available at the Primary Health Centre and access of patients to the Primary health Centre was evaluated. A brief research of the population living around the Primary Health Centre was undertaken.

The results revealed that about 3% of people residing around the Primary Health Centre present at the Primary Health Centre whenever they are sick. 78% of the people don't present because of financial constraint. Of the patients that present, 72% present at late stage of the disease or with complications. Only 6% of women that attend antenatal clinic delivered in the hospital. 86% of the patients presented with Infectious diseases that were highly preventable if proper hygienic conditions and good nutrition were maintained. 6% were conditions due to sedentary lifestyle while 5% were Idiopathic and 3% genetic. 46% of patients that attended the centre had good road network and access to it and the Centre had facilities that were sufficient (adequate manpower, drugs availability, investigations and referral services) for 32% of the patients that presented during the study period.

The above results showed that developing economy has a lot of impact on healthcare practice by affecting the proportion of people that presents at the hospital and the stage at which they present. It determines the types of conditions patients present with and proportion of people that have access to the hospital. This also was a determinant in the facilities and care available at the Primary Health Care centre.
This result would make us conlude that, any significant development in the health sector is greatly dependent on the economy of the country concerned and so a collaborative development of both sectors with other sectors is what is needed in achieving the Millenium Development Goals and any meaningful development.