The Nigeria Health Care System A STEEEP Analysis This section will evaluate the Nigeria Health Care

e System using the STEEEP criteria (safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable, patient-centered). Safe According to the World Health Organization report in 2011, the Nigeria health care system is relatively poor and currently undergoing significant reorganization. The country health care system is ranked 187 out of 191 and the country has one of the lowest life expectancy rate in the World, the children population dies before reaching the age of 5. Nigerian Health spends roughly 70% of its budget in urban areas leaving the rural areas without basic health care. The migration of doctors and health workers outside the shores of the country has resulted in the reduction of experienced health care workers in the health system. Fake and adulterated drugs has also being a major problem in the health care system resulting in the deaths of patients .In terms of infrastructures, there is a dearth of health facilities in all regions of the country and this makes it difficult for patients get the care they need . Timely In Nigeria, the access to doctors depends on the type of care and the facility the patient is receiving that care from. In the private facilities, patients who can afford the care (expensive payout from their pockets) can receive the best care immediately but in public facilities, patients do not have immediate access to doctors and specialists as a result of shortages in the number of personnels. Also lack of health facilities leads to a long waiting time and in most cases referrals have to be directed to other facilities (Gilbert, et al., 2008). Effective According to Gilbert et.al., (2008) there is a widespread perception that the quality of both public and private health care services is low, and that service delivery is inadequate. Indeed, the quality, access, efficiency, and the service availability of the health care system has stagnated or declined over the past decades and private health care services is low, and that service delivery is inadequate. In terms of human resources, Nigeria has one of the largest supplies of human

resources but there still exist great disparities health status and accessibility to health care among the different population groups in Nigeria. Efficient According to Ajay et al report for the WHO , Nigeria is adjudged or seen as having one of the most inefficient health care systems in the world (ranked 187 out of 191 countries). According to Ajay et. al, who used three attributes; improvement in the health of the population, enhanced responsiveness of the health system to the legitimate expectations of the population and finally is fairness in financing and financial risk protection. The Nigeria health system has failed to meet these basic requirements. (Tandon, Murray, Lauer, & Evans, 2001). In terms of expenditure, just 3.8 percent of the gross domestic product and 29.7 percent of the total government expenditure, making it one of the lowest in the world. Equitable In Nigeria Provision of priority health services is done through public and private facilities. It is important to note that significant inequities are evident in service coverage by zone, rural-urban location, and socioeconomic status across many of these indicators (Gilbert, et al., 2008).

Patient-centered In Nigeria Government has initiated policies that are geared towards the protection and rights of the patients but the problem is that after initiation, these policies are not backed with proper enforcement and thus there is a system that fails to provide quality health care support to patients. This failure of regulatory agencies to protect patients from scrupulous elements has resulted in human loss of life. Estimates suggest that a little over 50% of all registered private facilities are for-profit (World Bank,2005) as cited in (Gilbert, et al., 2008) thus suggesting that the interest of many health providers is not the patient but the profits they derive from providing health care. There is an inadequate health information system that can store the data of patients digitally resulting in the easy of loss of patients information.

Reference Gilbert, K., Unom, S., Fleisher, L., Kariisa, E., Arur, A., Sanjana, P., et al. (2008). Nigeria Health System Assessment. Maryland: Abt Associates Inc.

Tandon, A., Murray, C. J., Lauer, J. A., & Evans, D. B. (2001). Measuring Overall Health Performance for 191 Countries. Geneva: World Health Organization.