Barely a month after it was flagged off, the Healthy Bee project by the BOSKOH Lagos Healthcare Mission International has touched more than 1000 lives, especially children from indigent homes who benefited from free surgeries, reports Associate Editor ADEKUNLE YUSUF
IT was excitement galore as the Lagos State First Lady, Dr. Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, visited some public health facilities last weekend. It was also a homecoming of sorts as the visit provided the medical doctor a reunion opportunity with her colleagues in a sector where she has 56rked for more than 25 years before her husband, Babajide, was elected governor of the state.
At 10 am, Dr. Sanwo-Olu was at Massey Street Children Hospital on Lagos Island, where she observed medical procedures being administered on infant patients. Most of them were suffering from various dental disorders before undergoing medical interventions free. She was at the state-owned healthcare facility to assess the progress of the ongoing Healthy Bee project, a free medical intervention programme aimed at combating organ impairment and life-threatening ailments in children. Co-sponsored by the state government, the intervention was made possible through the collaboration of Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu/Kadiri Obafemi Hamzat (BOSKOH) Healthcare Mission International (HMI), a non-governmental organisation, which provides the personnel and technical service support for the project.
The medical initiative is a component of Governor Sanwo-Olu’s development agenda to reposition the state’s healthcare delivery system and give disadvantaged children access to quality medical care free. That was why the First Lady’s visit was greeted with excitement as the children beneficiaries and their parents were effusive with praises and prayers for initiating the programme.
From Massey Street Children Hospital, the next port of call was the Lagos Island General Hospital on Marina, where Dr. Sanwo-Olu also observed and interacted with children who had undergone surgery for various degrees of hernia. Like at the Massey Street Children Hospital, parents of beneficiaries sang songs of appreciation of the gesture that has saved the lives of their children. Dr. Sanwo-Olu was also at the Onikan Health Centre, Gbagada General Hospital and Orile Agege Health Centre.
At Gbagada, parents of children, who had surgery on their legs, were appreciative of the opportunity given their wards to walk again, with many of them expressing surprise that such a medical intervention was being done free. “I didn’t know my child would be able to walk again. When I heard that there is a programme that offers free treatment and surgery, I did not believe it initially. But I decided to try it out, only to find out that it is real. May God bless our governor for this opportunity that has given hope to my child,” a mother said.
The medical mission is, however, not only for children. The age range of beneficiaries of free eye surgeries at Orile-Agege Health Centre is between 60 and 80.
Speaking after the tour of the hospitals, the First Lady said she was delighted that thousands of residents had benefited since the project started. She expressed optimism that her observation had shown that there is hope of improvement in healthcare delivery in the state. She assured that the current administration would spare no effort to give deserved attention to the health sector with a view to scaling up quality healthcare services to the people.
“I see hope for improvement in the health sector after my visit to five hospitals to observe what has been done in the past few weeks. I started with Massey Street Children Hospital. I was impressed with the children that I saw there and the dental surgeries that have been done, with some still being attended to. The turnout was impressive and the people appreciated what we have done. All the surgeries were being done free.
“I also visited the General Hospital, Lagos to see the children that had orthopedic surgeries and the mothers were also very grateful for what has happened there, as well as Onikan Health Centre. I was also at General Hospital in Gbagada, and finally General Hospital Orile-Agege,” Dr. Sanwo-Olu said.
She praised the management of BOSKOH Lagos Healthcare Mission International for the humanitarian service, noting that she was impressed by interventions that had been carried out so far.
Mrs. Sanwo-Olu also said she was aware that the medical team even worked during the last public holiday to ensure the success of the programme, stressing that such a sacrifice is new in this clime. While specially appreciating the volunteers working to ensure the success of the free health mission, she assured that the project would not be a one-off exercise.
“I am here in Orile-Agege and I can see the smiles on the faces of the people. I must say I am impressed that even during public holidays, our medical personnel as well as the rest of the management team worked together to ensure that this was a successful programme and that shows that we can do it. This shows that there is hope for Lagos health sector, and there is hope for our citizens,” she said.
Giving a breakdown of the exercise, BOSKOH Healthcare Mission International Executive Director Mrs. Nike Osa said over 1000 people have so far benefited from various free surgical intervention, including orthopedic surgery, eye surgery, dental procedure, and ENT surgery.
“At Massey Street Children Hospital, 81 pediatric patients were referred for various cases, including dental problems and chronic medical conditions, with 67 dental extractions carried out, while over 300 patients were being attended to at General Hospital, Lagos, with a total of 94 surgeries so far carried out,” Osa said.
At Onikan Health Centre, Osa said a total of 193 patients were registered, out of which 75 surgeries have so far been carried out, with many still ongoing and some slated for surgeries, all free. Also, at the General Hospitals, Gbagada and Orile-Agege, she said about 120 pediatric surgeries had been done, while 88 eye surgeries were successfully carried out for adults ranging from 41 to 90 just within five days.
Noting that the surgical intervention is an offshoot of the free screening earlier conducted in designated primary health centres across the state, she explained that other medical conditions recorded during the screening ranging from cardiac or heart problems, neurological and developmental conditions will be referred to specialist clinics of designated state-owned hospital for long-term follow-up.
“As we speak, surgeries are ongoing in all our centres, including Badagry and General Hospitals and we appreciate everyone that has partnered us and volunteered for this noble cause without being paid,” she said. She thanked the government for deeming it fit to partner her organisation to bring succour to people, especially children who are the most vulnerable in the society.
According to Osa, the intervention was conceived to make children in the state healthy to enable them overcome physical, mental and psycho-social challenges that could hinder their capacity to learn. It involved the screening of children at the primary healthcare centre (PHC) locations nearest their homes. The seven PHCs in Ita-Elewa in Ikorodu, Onigbongbo in Ikeja, Ikotun in Alimosho, Akerele in Surulere, Iga Iduganran in Lagos Island, Ajara in Badagry, and Epe were used for the screening.
Organisers of the programme said the PHCs were carefully chosen to cover the entire state to provide equal opportunity for every child. Those found to have mental and physical challenges like poor vision, hearing loss, hernia, Blount’s disease, or any ailments that require further intervention like surgery or provision of visual or hearing aids, were referred to secondary health facilities that were designated for the exercise.
While all adult eye surgeries are designed to take place in Orile-Agege General Hospital, General Hospital in Lagos Island hosts patients needing pediatric eye surgery, ENT and pediatric surgery; Onikan Health Centre handles pediatric surgery; Massey Street Children Hospital takes care of dental surgery; Gbagada General Hospital is in charge of orthopedic surgery; while both Epe General Hospital and Badagry General Hospital host patients needing pediatric surgery in their dormains.
At the flag-off, almost a month ago, more than 500 children and adults were screened in addition to 76 eye glasses given out and dental services rendered from two dental vans. While those found to require further medical or surgical intervention were referred, the children and adults present were dewormed.
Also, adults were screened for diabetes mellitus, hypertension, TB and HIV, among other illnesses. In all, over 21,000 persons were screened in the seven centres over six days, as HMI brought in volunteer surgeons from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom to join their Nigerian counterparts.
In all, 186 surgeries have been carried out so far in Onikan Hospital; 88 in Orile Agege General Hospital; 194 in General Hospital, Lagos Island; 25 in Gbagada General Hospital; 187 in Massey Street Children Hospital; 55 in Epe General Hospital; and 67 in Badagry General Hospital. In addition, 615 persons have been booked for various surgeries in the hospitals listed above except Orile-Agege that has completed the adult eye surgeries.
According to Osa, the medical mission would have carried out nothing less than 1,417 free surgeries by the time it winds up tomorrow. “The programme has been highly successful. It was designed to extend healthcare services to children and create the awareness that a child with physical or mental disability shouldn’t be abandoned to his or her fate. With intervention, such a child can overcome the challenge and go on to live a productive life to the benefit of the child, family, state and country. And this we have succeeded in achieving with the Healthy Bee programme,” she said.
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