Africa Needs Stronger Primary Healthcare, Not More Hospitals
Africa's healthcare crisis is driven by a lack of accessible primary care, not just inadequate hospitals. Many in remote areas can't reach hospitals, leading to preventable deaths from conditions like malaria and childbirth complications. Approximately 60% of health issues could be managed at the primary care level, yet resources often focus on hospitals. Strengthening primary care is essential for improving health outcomes across the continent.
Ajay Wasserman
7/8/20251 min read
Sounds controversial? It’s not.
The real crisis in Africa’s healthcare system isn’t about ICU beds or fancy new equipment — it’s that most people never make it to a hospital at all.
In remote villages and urban slums, a child dies of malaria because there’s no clinic nearby.
A mother gives birth on a dirt floor because a trained nurse is 40km away.
60% of all conditions in Africa could be treated at the primary level — but we keep focusing on the top of the pyramid, not the base.
Here’s the hard truth, Primary Healthcare is the only path to Universal Health Coverage. And yet:
It’s underfunded
Undervalued
Undermined by short-term thinking
Meanwhile...
✔️ It’s the most cost-effective level of care
✔️ It creates millions of jobs for nurses, community health workers, and caregivers
✔️ It delivers vaccines, maternal care, NCD screening, and health education
✔️ It’s where pandemics are stopped before they start
If Africa invested even half as much in PHC as it did in centralised hospitals, we’d save millions of lives, build healthier economies, and reduce national health costs long-term.
Rwanda, Ghana, and Kenya have shown what’s possible with community-based, decentralised PHC. We need to scale this across the continent — now.
Africa will not meet its development goals without a robust, inclusive, and decentralised primary healthcare system.
It’s not just about health. It’s about dignity. Jobs. Education. Survival.
If you’re in policy, investment, health tech, or impact, the real opportunity isn’t in high-end equipment. It’s in the dusty clinics with broken windows that are still changing lives.
Let’s fund them.
Let’s staff them.
Let’s build the real frontline.