Building Sustainable Urban Health Systems; The Workforce Challenge (A Case Study Of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria)

The health professionals or workforce are one of the six building blocks when strengthening a health system. As it is generally said health is wealth. This study was an attempt to review the efficiency of health... [ view full abstract ]

The health professionals or workforce are one of the six building blocks when strengthening a health system. As it is generally said health is wealth. This study was an attempt to review the efficiency of health professionals serving a second level administrative area in a low resource setting.

The World Health Organisation defines health professionals in its strict sense under the scope of human resources for health to include doctors, nurses and midwives. This study assessed the availability of these professionals across all Local Government Areas in Akwa Ibom state, South-South Nigeria. The data used was the most recent socio-economic data available from the state. It was obtained from the Akwa Ibom State Statistical Year Book for year 2014 at the National Bureau of Statistics, Abuja, Nigeria. Results were compared with global recommended standards. Furthermore, Gini Coefficient was calculated to assess inequality of distribution within the state.

The result showed health professionals density averaging 0.46 per 1,000 people for the whole state. However variations occurred within the state from 0.34 per 1,000 in Abak to 1.78 per 1,000 in Uyo which is the most urbanized Local Government Area. All these fell short of the World Health Organisation’s recommended 2.28 per 1,000 people. The calculated Gini Coefficient was 0.444. This showed an inequality of health professionals’ distribution at about 44% in the state with the more urbanized Local Government Areas accounting for this slightly skewed distribution.

Obviously, more needs to be done in bridging the inequality gap of health professionals in the state in order to strengthen her health system.

KEY WORDS: Health system, Gini Coefficient, health professionals