Gate - the The development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC)

"including highly motivated doctors, pharmacists and nurses." On the other hand, it was admitted
that the system has weakness in the area of laboratory staff.
The general hospitals in the outlying Local Area Councils are small, some of them being upgraded
from primary health centers. For example, the Abaji general hospital people reported that their
facility of approximately 40-50 beds was recently upgraded from a Comprehensive Health Center,
and the construction was not yet complete in December 2004. They still have no laboratory space,
and the facilities do not yet have the capability of providing an HIV/AIDS program.
Some general hospitals in the urban area are also recently upgraded and expanded. For example, in
the Nyanya general hospital, the informant reported that "until five years ago it was a
Primary Health Care Center, and facilities are currently being upgraded to the status of a
General Hospital." The interview team estimated that the women and children's ward has about 30
to 40 beds, and there is a smaller male ward as well as Outpatient Department. Services are mainly
focused on pregnancy and childbirth, but they do treat opportunistic infections of HIV persons, STI
cases, as well as offering VCCT.
In the rural areas the local governmental health services are distributed in "health districts." For
example, the Gwagwalada Area Council has four health districts: Gwagwalada (the municipal
area), and three others, and each district has two primary health clinics, headed by Community
Health Extension Workers or Community Health Officers. These health centers are quite small, and
can only handle very minor complaints, so they refer the more serious problems to the general
hospitals in their areas.
In addition to the General Hospitals of the FCT system, informants frequently mentioned the
governmental Specialist Hospital in Gwagwalada as a facility for HIV/AIDS services.
Private Hospitals and other Facilities
The Catholic church organization operates eight hospitals in the FCT. The most frequently
mentioned by key informants is St. Mary's Hospital in Gwagwalada. Several organizations,
including the local governmental people spoke of referring people to St. Mary's Hospital for HIV
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