Benin residents, including the staff of the Iwogban Primary Health Centre in Benin, the Edo capital, have decried the poor state of facilities in the health centre.
Some of the residents expressed their feelings in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin on Sunday and called on the relevant authorities to rehabilitate the facility.
Mrs Tina Obehi, a retired nurse who resides in Iwogban area, said that the poor state of the centre had prevented residents from having access to treatment.
“People here now prefer to go to other health centres for immunisation and birth delivery because there is no electricity and water in the health centre. The building is dilapidated.
“We are appealing to the State Government to come to our aid and put the health centre in good shape,” she said.
Another resident, Mr Uyi Osasu, a teacher, said primary health facility played a crucial role in the lives of the citizenry.
Osasu said that government should provide functional health centres in every community as an assurance of good health for the people, especially those at the grassroots.
The teacher said that the Iwogban health centre had not been able to meet the primary health needs of the people in recent times.
He said the residents now spent more on buying drugs from patent medicine shops and pharmacies to treat illnesses that would ordinarily have been treated at low cost in the health centre.
The Matron in charge of the facility, Mrs Marian Okolo, said that the poor state of the building had reduced patronage by patients.
“Almost every part of the roof of the building is leaking and we have entered the raining season; we need general renovation of the building.
“We have labour wards that are equipped but women rarely come here to be delivered of babies because of the poor condition of the centre.
“We have not had light here since 2012 and there is no water. We have a borehole but it stopped working few months after it was installed in 2010.
“We have a security guard that keeps watch during the day but there is none to guard the premises at night,” Okolo said.
She, however, called on Iwogban community to complement efforts of the state government to renovate the centre and solve the other problems. (NAN)