promotive
protective
preventive
restorative and
rehabilitative
to every citizen of the country within the available resources so that individuals and communities are assured of productivity, social well- being and enjoyment of living.

The health services, based on primary health care, shall include among other things:

education concerning prevailing health problems and the methods of preventing and controlling them
promotion of food supply and proper nutrition
material and child care, including family planning
immunisation against the major infectious diseases
prevention and control of locally endemic and epidemic diseases
provision of essential drugs and supplies.
There is a three-tier system of health care, namely: Primary Health Care, Secondary Health Care, and Tertiary Health Care.

Primary Health Care
The Provision of health care at this level is largely the responsibility of Local Governments with the support of state ministries of health and within the overall national health policy. Private medical practitioners also provide health care at this level.

Secondary Health Care
This level of health care provides specialized services to patients referred from the primary health care level through out-patient and in-patient services of hospitals for general medical, surgical, pediatric patients and community health services. Secondary health care is available at the district, divisional and zonal levels of the states. Adequate supportive services such as laboratory, diagnostic, blood bank, rehabilitation and physiotherapy are also provided.

Tertiary Health Care
This level consists of highly specialized services provided by teaching hospitals and other specialist hospitals which provide care for specific diseases such as orthopedic, eye, psychiatric, maternity and pediatric cases. Care is taken to ensure an even distribution of these hospitals. Also, appropriate support services are incorporated into the development of these tertiary facilities to provide effective referral services. Similarly, selected centers are encouraged to develop special expertise with respect to modern technology to serve as a resource for evaluating and adapting these new developments in the context of local needs and opportunities.

To further the overall national health policy, governments of the Federation work closely with voluntary agencies, private practitioners and other non-governmental organizations to ensure that the services provided by these other agencies are in line with those of government.

For more information contact:

Federal Ministry of Health
Address: Block 4A (3rd Floor), Federal Secretariat Complex, Shehu Shagari Way, Central Area, P.M.B. 083, Garki, Abuja
Tel: 09-5238362
Fax: 09-5234590