About Us

#MakeOurHospitalWork Campaign is citizen-led community-based advocacy to improve the quality of healthcare services in hospitals and primary health care facilities across Nigeria. We want every health facility to provide quality health care to the satisfaction of its users in a sustainable manner.

We believe that every Nigerian should have access to the best possible quality of health care services no matter where they live, how much they have or their physical status. We also believe that communities must be involved in the governance of health care facilities in accordance with the National Health Act 2014 and other relevant health policies.

We are inspiring citizens to organise themselves in their communities and adopt a health care facility, identify what the hospital or primary healthcare centre needs to improve the quality of care, mobilise local resources to provide those needs and ensure active community participation through continuous monitoring and oversight.    

#MakeOurHospitalWork Campaign is non-partisan and non-discriminatory. We do not give grants or financial donations to communities. We do not procure or supply commodities or medical equipment for hospitals. We mainly function as catalysts for community actions to improve quality of health care.

We accept voluntary donations from individuals and credible groups, organisations or corporations who believe in this cause.

We are open to partnering with persons, groups or institutions with similar objectives.

Why are we doing this?

The Nigerian health system is very weak having suffered many years of utter neglect, inadequate investment and wasteful management of available resources. The Covid-19 pandemic and the public scrutiny of the control measures have made the gaps more evident to both the policymakers and the citizens of Nigeria. An indicator of a working health system is the quality of preventive or curative health care services accessible in its hospitals.

So far, the advocacy for health systems strengthening and increased public health financing has focused largely on the supply side, in this case the policy makers at the federal level and sometimes at the state level. While pockets of success stories have been recorded in terms of increased funding (e.g. $500 million for Save One Million Lives and >=1% Consolidated Revenue Fund as Basic Health Care Provision Fund – over N120 billion budgeted from 2018 to 2020), it is yet to translate to a significant improvement in the functionality of PHCs and hospitals and the quality of health care delivery across the country. This is partly due to a minimal participation of the people (demand side) and perhaps a no-sense of ownership on the part of the benefitting communities. We want this to change for the better.

#MakeOurHospitalWork Campaign seeks to simplify the health systems strengthening advocacy messages using the functionality of the Primary Healthcare Centre (PHC) or hospital in a community as a model. We seek to inspire citizens to take responsibility, lead a strategic advocacy and mobilise local resources to make their hospitals work in a sustainable manner – one at a time.

At the community level, the campaigned shall be deemed successful when the health care facility becomes fully functional, quality of health care services is improved and the community is actively involved in the governance of the facility.

NB: Hospitals here refer to health care facilities including Primary Health Care Centres (PHC), General Hospitals, teaching hospitals, private hospitals, etc. We used hospital because it is easily understood and requires no explanation.