HEALTHCARE SCENARIO IN BENIN

Posted on 5 Jul 2022

HEALTHCARE SCENARIO IN BENIN

Overview of the country

Benin, officially the Republic of Benin (French: République du Bénin) and formerly known as Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east. The majority of its population lives on the small southern coastline of the Bight of Benin, part of the Gulf of Guinea in the northernmost tropical portion of the Atlantic Ocean. The capital of Benin is Porto-Novo and the Republic of Benin is located in the western region of the African continent.

Healthcare Scenario of Benin

The sub-Saharan country possesses a tropical climate and a population of approximately 12 million people with an average annual rate of 0.96%. Benin’s economy highly relies on agriculture. Unfortunately, Benin is an impoverished nation with about one-third of the population living beneath the international poverty line. The Literacy rate of Benin is 42.36% and the male to female ratio is 99.83 males per 100 females. The citizens of Benin also experience many different issues regarding the healthcare in Benin.  Benin covers an area of 114,763 square kilometres. Government spends only 3.3% of the GDP on services relating to healthcare in Benin. The average life expectancy is around 60 years old.

Despite Benin’s relatively large area (about 110,000 square km), there are 59 hospitals within the national borders. A survey conducted states that for every 1,000 patients who arrived at hospitals to receive treatment, only 0.1 doctors and 0.2 beds were available. As a result, one of the primary methods to improve Benin’s health care is to hire and train more doctors. Despite Benin’s current progress in healthcare, child malnutrition still remains a critical marker of poverty and improper healthcare. Assumptions have also determined that over 25% of infants and children younger than 5-years-old suffer or die from malnutrition. However, the government of Benin has recently developed an innovative plan for improving child nutrition. In addition to that the Health Ministry has a mission to improve the Healthcare system of Benin by 2025.

The vision of the Ministry of Health states that “By 2025, Benin will have a functioning healthcare system based on public and private initiatives, individual and collective, to offer permanent Availability and Quality of Care, equitable and accessible Populations in all categories, based on values of solidarity and risk sharing to meet all the health needs of the people. “

Health Indicators of Benin

Total Fertility Rate – The Fertility rate indicates that total births per women in Benin was 4.70. Over the past few years this indicator reached a maximum value of 7.03 and a minimum value of 4.70 in 2020. The decline rate is seen about 1.35% compared to that of last year 2021.The Fertility rate in Benin is seen decreasing over the years because of various reasons such as lack of social development, contraceptives and lack of affordable housing.

Maternal Mortality Ratio – Benin’s’ maternal mortality rate recently was 397 deaths per 1 lakh live births. A 2.7% decline from the earlier standards. Despite the efforts of the Government aimed at improving health care, it is unlikely that Benin will achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 3.1. – the reduction of maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births by 2030.

Child Mortality – The current infant mortality rate for Benin in 2022 is 55.5 deaths per 1000 live births, a 2.47% decline from 2021. Due to Pre-pregnancy and pre-natal care there has been decrease in infant mortality rate. The Under 5 Mortality rate stands at 85.9 per 1000 live births, while the Neonatal mortality rate stands at 30 per 1000 live births.

Healthcare System in Benin

The organization of the health care system is based on the administrative division of the country into 12 departments and 77 local councils. It is pyramidal with three levels: the central, intermediary, and peripheral levels. Benin has a centralized healthcare system. The country has 12 states each divided into 34 health zones. Each zone consists of department health centres, commune health centres, and a hospital.

Public and private healthcare in Benin

The healthcare system in Benin is primarily dependent on the public sector, which has a history of strict regulatory measures and centralized decision-making. The country’s 12 departments (states) are divided into 34 health zones. These health zones contain one to four communes and are managed by health zone committees and management teams. Each zone consists of department health centres, commune health centres, and a hospital. A health zone office oversees all public and private health entities within a given zone, including private and public hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies. 

As of writing, the private health sector is undergoing an expansion due to accelerated urbanization and poor access or quality of public services. Private healthcare services include individual medical cabinets or clinics, midwife-led maternities nurse-run cabinets, and other general and specialized medical practices. The private health sector is considered to be a significant source of treatment for illnesses among children under five years of age for health issues, such as diarrhoea and fever. 

The private sector is an important player in Benin’s health sector. It is expected that the public sector will not be able to respond to the growing demand in the urban and semi-urban areas. This could result in an expansion of private healthcare facilities operated by professional medical providers in the country. 

Disease burden in Benin

Prevalence is the proportion of a particular population found to be affected by a medical condition at a specific time. In Benin the prevalence of diseases includes:-

Communicable Diseases – Over the 70% morbidity is attributable to communicable disease in Benin. Malaria is one of the most common diseases in Benin which accounts for 21% of premature deaths. The other category includes acute bronchitis, bronchiolitis, influenza, and pneumonia. It accounts for 15% of premature deaths in Benin.

Non-Communicable diseases – The diseases such as Diarrhoea causes about 5% of deaths each year in Benin. One of the main causes of these diarrheal diseases is poor sanitation. This includes things like drinking contaminated water or not having access to running water. And also Preterm birth complications are the leading cause of neonatal death. A total of 217 lives are lost every year because of complications during a pregnancy in Benin.

The Reasons behind increasing the prevalence of this diseases were –

Lack of quality
Lack of Health promotion
Lack of Medical professionals

Sectors of Healthcare Industry in Benin

Health insurance

As The health insurance is a way for greater financial protection against health shocks, improving efficiency and delivery of healthcare for better health outcome. But as Benin is one of the poor countries in the world, it falls in the ‘very bad ‘category. The Health insurance schemes are not much developed in Benin. Therefor the health insurance for antenatal attendance in Benin was about 0.9%.

Diagnostic Sector  

The diagnostic sector is most essential sector in a country for faster sustainable and inclusive development. Clinical as well as radiological diagnostic services of the best advanced technology are available. Benin has a full range of clinically focused diagnostic and therapeutic procedures including Bone Denistometry, latest 1.5 Tesla MRI services, and CT imaging. The CDC has been collaborating with the Benin Government on a subnational malaria control project with the help of World Health Organization.

The impact of CDC was –

Distributed 750,000 long-lasting insecticide-treated nets between October 2016 and October 2017.
Provided artemisinin-based combination therapies for malaria to more than 1.7 million patients.

Provided intermittent preventive treatment for malaria to more than 500,00 pregnant women.
Distributed 115,000 rapid diagnostic tests for malaria.
Provided indoor residual spraying to more than 380,000 households, protecting 1.2 million residents.

Telemedicine

The Telemedicine service was launched by the Edo government in Benin on 7th june 2022. The government promised to have one standard primary health care center in each of the 192 wards in one state. The plan, according to the governor, Godwin Obaseki is to provide accessible and quality healthcare services to residents and indigenes of the state. Telemedicine services will be available across the Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) in the states.

Medical Equipment Sector

The government plans to purchase new medical equipment for the first time, including two Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners for health facilities under its control, as part of its PAG. Opportunities for the purchase of new medical scanners, X-ray machines, and imaging equipment are being developed. The COVID19 pandemic has highlighted the lack of oxygen-related equipment, including ventilators, oxygen cannisters, pulse oximeters, medications, and personal protective equipment (PPE). The key factors that were responsible for the management of medical equipment were, high acquisition costs; lack of insight of the government on medical device market prices; lack of capacity to monitor reasonable prices from supplier and lack of human resources. The scenario of the managing the medical equipment can be improved by using existing tools, such as value-based pricing, development of an essential medical devices list and technology assessment.

Conclusion

Management and maintenance of healthcare technology in Benin remains a challenge. From the planning to the disposal of the devices, many actions have been undertaken to improve the Healthcare technology. The achievements in the public healthcare sector depend on the full involvement of each stakeholder, but the main responsibility is still holds for the governments. They need the political willingness and commitment to recognize management and maintenance of devices as an integral part of public health policy in order to improve the quality and access to healthcare of the country.

For more information about the Country and Healthcare opportunities in Benin, you can visit the company website on www.hospaccxconsulting.com or contact us directly.