8,000 People Benefits From Sanwo-Olu Free Medical Outreach Services

…Mushin LGA Receives Free Medical Mission Train

…30,000 More in Riverine, Rural Communities and Hard-to-Reach Areas Targeted

No fewer than 8,000 people who reside in riverine, hard-to-reach and rural communities across Lagos State have benefitted from a free medical outreach programme sponsored by the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

Senior Special Assistant to the Lagos State Governor on Health, Dr. Oreoluwa Finnih who disclosed this today at the Palm Avenue Primary Health Centre, venue of the free medical outreach programme for residents of Mushin Local Government Area and environs, explained the free medical expedition programme was organized at the behest of the Governor to improve access to quality and efficient health care delivery at the grassroots as well as achieve universal health coverage particularly in communities with less significant health coverage.

Speaking further, Finnih disclosed that over 30,000 people residing in rural, riverine and hard-to-reach communities are expected to be reached with free basic health care services during the pilot phase of the ongoing programme which started late last year.

According to her, the free medical services offered during the outreaches include blood pressure check, free blood sugar check, medical consultation, eye care services, breast and cervical cancer screening, vaccination and immunization services, free medication, health education and counselling services.

She said: “Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu is highly committed to the health of the Lagos people, as daunting as that task may seem, he has taken it head on and even done the unusual because He’s Mr. unusual as well. Beyond standing in Mushin today, this Sanwo-Olu free medical outreach mission has gone into the hard-to-reach areas of Lagos State.

“The Governor through this medical intervention has provided free blood pressure check, free blood sugar check, we are also going to know the weight and height of our patients, so we can advise some of them on perhaps lifestyle changes they need to make in terms of their diet and other things they are doing.

“Furthermore, we have doctors and other medical personnel to offer consultation and medical checks that will often lead to prescription, and we have those prescriptions, meaning people are going to get medications for free here. For those who have complaints with their eyesight, they have the opportunity of seeing the opticians and perhaps get free eye glasses if required. For our women folk, we are providing free breast and cervical cancer screening as well. And for those whose medical needs cannot be met at an outreach such as this, it is an opportunity to link them up with the closest primary, secondary or tertiary healthcare facility in their vicinity”.

While noting that the free medical outreach services are in continuation of efforts to increase access to health services and complement existing basic health care service provision at communities visited, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Health stated that the free medical outreach programme is also geared towards encouraging people to seek health.

“Generally, our people in the country, not just in Lagos have poor health seeking behaviour, they don’t seek healthcare until sometimes it is too late, so we thought it wise to bring healthcare to their door steps, to their markets, worship centers and communities so that they can access it while going about their routine activities.

And then, a lot of the diseases that would have taken long and perhaps would have proven fatal, we can catch quickly and make sure that we have a healthy population. So that’s what we are doing with these interventions, to encourage the people to come, get health care and also be aware of the services that are going on in their primary health care centres”, Finnih said.

She explained that the Governor has procured water ambulance to ease the provision of health care services to riverine dwellers adding that medical infrastructure upgrade and capacity of health workers especially at the primary care level are being accorded the priority they deserve.

“Remember that Lagos is an Island and therefore we have a riverine population that we have to cater to their health care needs, and the Governor has done so by ensuring we have a water ambulance. He is also supporting the various local government who have riverine communities by making sure they have access to quality and efficient health care services through the establishment of primary health care facilities manned by trained and well equipped staff who take health care services to the population in the nooks and crannies of their various local government”, the Governor’s aide said.

Finnih stated that the free medical mission train has visited several local governments including riverine communities and hard-to-reach areas of the State adding that the outreach is going to be continuous exercise and will run as scheduled up until a day before the presidential election but to also continue thereafter.

“We have been to several local governments, yesterday were at Oshodi-Isolo, today we are in Mushin, previously we have visited Alaba-Rago in Ojo, Oyingbo market in Mainland, some riverine communities including Ibeshe in Amuwo-Odofin, Badadgry and Eti-Osa and Epe, and so far we seen over 8,000 people and we look forward to seeing at least double that number more.

“We are looking at seeing by the end of this outreach between 25,000 to 30,000 people both on Lagos Mainland, Island, Riverine Communities, Hard-to-Reach areas, slums, market, worship centres.

“All services at this medical outreach mission are absolutely free to citizens. It is to encourage people to seek better healthcare, when you are not feeling fine, go to a health care facility rather than a chemist. Go to a health care facility where they may pick up some other things that are wrong with you and they can quickly treat before it becomes more expensive, complicated or lead to permanent injury, disability or death”, She said.

Speaking in the same vein, the Special Assistant to the State Commissioner for Health, Dr.Tunde Ajayi explained that the focus of the medical outreach mission is to catch the unreached; the people who do not have time to go to the health facilities and who haven’t considered it important enough to take care of their health stressing that the goal is to catch them right at the place where they work; amongst their market spaces and public facilities.

“On the one hand of this outreach, we are doing a whole lot of work with health education, we are reaching out to children, women, talking to them about their health, making sure they have improved health seeking behaviour and how to seek attention and care when they need one.

“One of the key things, we are doing is the breast and cervical cancer screening, where we will first educate them on the need to have that screening and educate them about the risk that women of sexual reproductive age are exposed to and how they are able to take care of themselves, seek help early to getter better quality of life for themselves”. He said.

While noting that data gathered from the program showed that more women than men have been seen in these outreaches so far, Dr. Ajayi opined that interventions like the free outreach programme are better implemented when it is run through women.

“Generally women drive the nation and homes and justifiably so, we have seen more women and I think when you want to drive any form of interventions, you better take through the women because they would make it happen more effectively.

“Interventions like these are good and they are very essential particularly in hard-to-reach areas and places where people are preoccupied with making a daily living and maybe sometimes they don’t get enough health education. Going forward, I think our PHC would intensify the work they currently do with health education and outreach programmes and make sure that things are done more extensively on wider scope and scale and make sure that people feel more impact of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration in the health sector”, He said.

The Medical Officer of Health in Mushin LGA, Dr. Kayode Odufuwa who also spoke at the event noted that free medical outreach intervention is a consolidation of what the Chairman of the Mushin LG is doing through the PHCs in the community.

“We thank the Governor for remembering the people of Mushin and the health department. Every month, the local government conducts monthly free medical services where we screen all diseases especially hypertension and diabetes, free eye test, free drugs, free medical consultation, health talks, these are done every month. We do it for the community at each ward and staff on a monthly basis.

“So this intervention is a consolidation for continuity, it is a consolidation for us to continue to do more. So when we were informed of this intervention, we were very happy because the people of Mushin really need this kind of intervention on a regular basis”, He said.

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