Maintenance practices in Nigeria’s public health-care buildings: a systematic review of issues and feasible solutions

Purpose Health-care building maintenance has been receiving concern because of the recent global pandemic. However, there are inadequate broad studies affecting health-care facilities maintenance and feasible solutions in Nigeria. This study aims to conduct an all-inclusive review of public hospital building maintenance issues and proffer possible solutions to improve maintenance practices in health-care buildings via a framework that will support studies in the future. Design/methodology/approach A review of published papers from 2006 to 2020 was conducted. Based on the keywords, 3 pertinent databases were searched and descriptions of the findings from 40 studies were recognised and used in line with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. Findings Two main themes (issues and feasible solutions to improve practices) emerged from public health-care building maintenance practices. The study developed a framework that describes the relationship between issues and possible solutions with an emphasis on how to improve human development, management efficiency, technical competence and professional skills, cost-minimisation and others. Practical implications As part of the paper implications, emerged issues were group into five categories (human development, management, technical, limited financial resources and others). The proposed framework for future studies will attempt to mitigate issues and proffer feasible solutions to improve hospital building maintenance practices in Nigeria and other developing countries that are facing similar challenges. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is possibly the first comprehensive review of public health-care building maintenance practices in Nigeria. Moreover, this review demonstrates how the proposed feasible solutions can mitigate problems.