The blaze that consumed a large part of the Rogo General Hospital has again exposed the precarious condition of the general healthcare facilities in Kano State, and especially in isolated communities where one health facility usually serves tens of thousands of individuals.
Rogo General Hospital is a secondary healthcare unit that serves not only the Rogo Local Government Area but also the nearby communities in an area of Karaye and Kabo axes.
Under Kano State health records, general hospitals in this level are to serve a population of 150, 000 to 300, 000 people whereby services are offered at general hospitals, emergency care, treatment of tuberculosis, and outpatient services.
The absence of such a facility even temporarily places a medical vacuum that can be occupied only by smaller primary health centres.
The fire, which has destroyed such vital units as male and female wards, outpatient units, tuberculosis clinic, pharmacy services, and others, has immediate consequences besides damaged infrastructure.
It breaks the continuity of services to chronic patients, emergency care capability, and maternal healthcare services established in an area that already faces fewer healthcare options.
According to the experts in the field of public health, the incident is an indication of a larger issue on the national level.
Dr. Musa Abdullahi, a doctor of public health in Bayero University Kano, told NewsNGR that the frequent occurrence of fire incidents in hospitals usually indicates an overall disregard of safety measures.
According to Abdullahi, “many of the public hospitals were constructed several decades ago and have been adapted without the required safety checks.
“Combine solar power systems, generators, oxygen storage and electrical rewiring, without extensive risk analysis, then you are setting the stage to disasters.”
Healthcare facilities in Nigeria have embraced the use of solar energy systems to substitute the irregular power supply.
Although renewable energy enhances service delivery, the experts caution that improper installation and maintenance may be very dangerous in terms of fire outbreaks.
The Nigerian Energy Support Programme has seen hundreds of state facilities (many with no long-term maintenance schemes) in northern Nigeria fitted with solar systems in recent years.
Electrical safety engineer, Engr. Sadiq Bello elaborated that solar systems installed in hospitals are to have higher safety levels as compared to those installed in the residential houses.
Bello said hospitals operate for 24 hours and have high-load equipment.
“Overheating and fire breakouts are nearly unavoidable, especially when the quality of solar inverters, batteries, or wiring is of low standard and is not well ventilated.”
The economic effect of the fire is also high. The administrators of the hospital attested to the fact that huge amounts of drugs, medical equipment, and consumables were lost, and loss was still to be calculated.
Health economists fear that the cost of replacing such inventories may overstretch state health budgets that are already stretched, and this may hamper the restoration of services in full.
The National Health Accounts of Nigeria show that already, states spend lower than the recommended 15 per cent of their annual budgets on health.
Such an environment may result in the diversion of funds to other health interventions, which are important due to an unplanned disaster such as the Rogo fire.
Kano State already documents one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the country, which is mainly caused by late access to qualified care.
Hajiya Amina Lawal, a community health advocacy at Rogo, said that with every extra kilometre that a pregnant woman has to cover, the risk increases.
Once a general hospital is closed, women have to go to smaller clinics, or they have to travel long distances, and they may lack means of transportation.
Although the Kano State Government has received a lot of applause because of their rapid promise to revamp the hospital, analysts underline that it should be more than a cosmetic renovation.
Experts’ demands for renovation that are fire resistant design, effective fire alarm, on-site fire fighting equipment, staff training on fire safety, and regularly conducted electrical audits in all the publicly owned hospitals in the state.
Kabiru Sani, a health policy analyst, believes that the incident should act as a wake-up call.
“The ultimate test will be whether the government will institutionalise safety standards not only in Rogo but throughout the healthcare facilities.
“The Rogo General Hospital fire is not only a local tragedy. It is a wake-up call on healthcare safety in the whole of Kano State.”
He added that the real legacy of the incident will be whether that warning will result in systemic reform or will die with reconstruction.
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