CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Health services delivery in Nigeria had its historical antecedents. It had evolved through a series of developments including a succession of policies and plan, which had been introduced by previous administrations. Previous administration here refers to the unorganized administration of the colonial and post-colonial administration in Nigeria.
Oyewo (1991) traced the historical epoch of Nigerian health sector beyond the organized colonial period and asserted that maternal and child care of pre-colonial period through primitive, compared to the orthodox medical care, served the people with precise efficiency which was proportional to their level of development. He further identified the beginning of a meaningful health service policy with the first Ten year National plan (1946 – 1956) wherein health was put on the concurrent legislative list with both Federal and Regional government exercising defined powers within their areas of direct administrative control. Similarly, many published and unpublished works remarked that Public Health Services in Nigerian and other West African Protectorates originated from the British Army Medical Services. When the army became integrated with the colonial government, medical care was extended to the local civil servants and their relatives and eventually to the local population, especially those living close to government station. At the same time various religious bodies especially Christian Missionaries and private agencies made spirited efforts to established hospitals, dispensaries and maternity centres in different parts of the country, particularly in the South and the Middle Belt.
The first Ten-year National plan (1946 – 1956) whose proponents were mainly expatriate officials had a number of deficiencies, especially in the health services. The health policy at the Second National Development Plan (1970–1974) focused in part at correcting some of the deficiencies in the health delivery services. There was a deliberate attempt to draw up a comprehensive national health policy dealing with such issues as health man-power development, provision of comprehensive health care based on basic health care service scheme, disease control, efficient utilization of health resources, medical research and health planning.