Agbinpa Primary Healthcare Centre in Ede South Local Government Area of Osun State The overgrown grasses are the first sign of neglect at Agbinpa Primary Healthcare Centre in Ede South Local Government Area of Osun State. They cover parts of the compound, brushing against walls with peeling paint and deep cracks. Sections of the facility have become unusable, while others have fallen into disrepair after years without major rehabilitation.
Next to the health centre stands a staff quarters commissioned in March 1999, a reminder of how long the facility has served the community and how little has changed over the years. Getting to the facility was difficult. It took this reporter about an hour on a commercial motorcycle from Osogbo to Agbinpa, travelling along long stretches of uneven rural roads. It was in late May, and Rashidat Lamidi was attending to patients.
For years, she has run the health centre as its sole caregiver and administrator. Mrs Lamidi attends to pregnant women, children, and other patients, responds to emergency calls even after leaving work, clears the surroundings and, at times, buys basic consumables when they are out of stock.
“Even if I’m at home and somebody comes to call me because a child is sick or a woman wants to give birth, I will come,” she said. Mrs Lamidi said the state government pays her salary regularly. But it does not extend the same attention to the facility, despite many politicians and government officials visiting over the years, particularly during election periods.
Because the facility has no functional laboratory, patients who need basic blood tests have to travel about 26 kilometres to Ede. Although a few delivery instruments were available during PREMIUM TIMES’ visit, they were inadequate for the number of patients the facility serves. Women in labour buy gloves