The Lagos State Primary Health Care Board (LSPHCB) has appealed to the 57 local government and development council chairmen to collaborate with the state in providing effective cooling systems for vaccines to ensure their potency.
The appeal was made on Monday by Dr Temitope Balogun-Alo, Director of Research and Statistics at LSPHCB, during a Primary Health Care (PHC) dialogue themed “Strengthening the Primary Health Care System: A Joint Leadership Dialogue.”
Balogun-Alo made the call during a technical session titled “Primary Healthcare in Lagos – Current State, Governance, Financing and the Roles of LGA Chairmen.” She emphasized the importance of increasing funding for PHCs, particularly immunization services, which currently face challenges with inadequate and non-functional vaccine cooling systems.
“We need proper storage for our vaccines. Most of our facilities—over 90 percent—already have solar refrigerators for keeping vaccines. But how do we maintain the cold chain once vaccines are removed from the fridge? Maintaining the required temperature is what makes vaccines effective, whether it is routine immunization for children or adult vaccinations such as COVID-19, cholera, or the recent diphtheria outbreak,” she explained.
Balogun-Alo highlighted the need for ice packs, coolers, additional fridges, freezers, and transportation to maintain vaccine efficacy. She also urged increased budgetary allocations for PHCs, operational costs, and targeted funding for immunization, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH+N), and emergency preparedness.
She stressed that collaboration between LSPHCB and local government leaders was essential to maintain and upgrade existing PHCs and improve service delivery. She further called for efforts to bridge the human resource gap and equip ambulances for emergency response and referral services.
Responding, Mr Sesan Olowa, Chairman of Conference 57, pledged that local government chairmen in Lagos would budget between N500 million and N1 billion for health in 2026, adding that human resources at PHCs would also be strengthened.
He said additional measures would be taken to improve infrastructure, governance, monitoring and performance to provide quality healthcare to residents.
Prof. Akin Abayomi, Lagos State Commissioner for Health, emphasized the need to organize a PHC financing reform retreat between the state and local government leaders to strengthen accountability and intergovernmental relations.
Abayomi disclosed that Lagos has 326 PHCs serving a population of 30 million residents, but noted that the state requires 2,400 PHCs to meet World Health Organization benchmarks. He added that half of the state’s PHCs require significant upgrades to provide quality health care, noting that suboptimal PHCs often drive residents to secondary and tertiary hospitals.
The commissioner, however, said the state government had conducted a needs assessment on PHC infrastructure to provide evidence-based information for improvement. He reiterated Lagos State’s commitment to enhancing healthcare services through the revitalization of PHCs across the state.
