The Nation Newspaper

Tag: medicare

  • Free medicare for residents

    An aspirant for the chairmanship of Agboyi-Ketu Local Council Development Area in the forthcoming local government election on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Adekunle Kehinde Kennedy, has offered free medical services to residents of Alapere–Ketu area of Lagos State.

    Addressing the large crowd that had gathered to receive the free medical service, Kehinde, who is a member of the executive of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (N.U.R.T.W.), praised the National Leader of APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for his visionary leadership that aimed at taking the country out of the woods.

    He said the former Governor of Lagos State is a leader ordained by God and who has been playing the roles of a kingmaker in governance for over a decade. He advised President Muhammadu Buhari to always listen to Asiwaju’s pieces of advice, saying he is God-send to lead the country to greatness, having led Lagos in particular to its present glory.

    Kennedy, as he is fondly called by his fans, however, noted that Tinubu should not be shoved aside in the present political dispensation, but should be seen as a bridge-builder, symbol of unity, good listener and philanthropist, adding that the youth are proud of him.

  • Medicare for the displaced

    Medicare for the displaced

    A radio personality inspires a medical outreach in displaced persons’ camps, reports  GRACE OBIKE 

    Quite a curious relationship exists between internally displaced persons in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the authorities. There are more than six of their camps there but the territory’s administration recognises none of them.

    That is not to say the administrators do not help, but such help comes in trickles, never clearly defined, almost an afterthought.

    So how do the displaced in the FCT get by? Mostly through private outreaches. This time a radio personality is their benefactor.

    They live in shacks made of polythene, sacks and cartons or in uncompleted buildings without toilets, windows or doors, even under the most severe weather conditions.

    Although several residents of Abuja have made it their mission to cater to their basic needs of food, clothing and in some cases educational and medical needs, their living condition often makes them ill without cash to buy medicine.

    Secretary of the Kuchigoro camp Enoch Yohanna explained that 50% of the camp population is suffering from malaria and most of their pregnant women do not go for antenatal because the primary health care centre in old Kuchigoro that they are suppose to make use of often goes on strike which makes it difficult to know when they work.

    “We appreciate all the other assistance that we get, like food and clothing but this free medical mission is one of what we need the most, they are saving our lives with this opportunity because we have been suffering, there is presently no medical centre created to cater for the needs of the IDPs here, presently almost 50% of our population is having malaria, I just recovered from it. They are just complaining, you can go round and you will see them just sleeping.

    “They are also using the opportunity to see our pregnant women for their antenatal care because most of them don’t have the opportunity to go for antenatal because they are supposed to be going to a primary health care centre at the old Kuchigoro but I think they go on strike oftentimes so we mostly don’t know when they are working.”

    Abuja broadcaster Grace Epko popularly known as Lady G with Wazobia FM called for help on air and her listeners responded. Aids flooded the camps.

    “I got to know about the state of the camps from individuals who visited and saw the detoriating state of the camps, the living conditions and I decided to pay a visit to the camp. I mentioned my intentions on air and the people from the When in Need Foundation (WINfound) called and offered to partner with me.

    “We came to Kuchigoro camp and what we saw was not really pleasant, so I went on air and began campaigning for support and people have been awesome, people came from all over the city to drop their contributions with us, which is really wonderful especially with the present economic downturn.”

    President/ CEO of WINFound Chetachi Ecton explained that she and her team of volunteers decided to partner with Lady G on a medical mission around the camps in Abuja to help the IDPs in an area they believe that their help is really needed.

    “When I saw pictures of the condition of the camps, I cried because I couldn’t understand why these individuals after so many years are still living in cardboard boxes; the water in some of the camps is so dirty, the children are fed near the gutter which we all know could be infected with anything, so I decided to do a medical mission, I said because of the dirty water around and the mosquitoes, I wonder how many people have suffered malaria so far, how many people have died of malaria.

    “But not just malaria, what about the pregnant women here, how are they taken care of, the men, how are they taken care of? So I decided to expand the medical mission to include everyone, the idea was to come for children alone for malaria testing but we can’t do the children and forget their parents so we decided to treat malaria, high blood pressure and as much as we can do in a day.

    “We have five or six doctors, nurses, lab technicians as soon as they heard what we where doing, they where volunteering to come. We have done other things in several states in the country.

    “Our foundation is global, whatever you see here has been done global, my team and I will decide when and how often to come back for medical missions and maybe when I return to the US, I will be lucky to find some colleagues that will donate their time to come back to help, this is going to be a continuous effort for us with the IDPs because they need us.”

     

  • Medicare for sale?

    Medicare for sale?

    •To privatise or not to privatise, that is the question now in Nigeria’s health sector

    The furor over the proposed policy of Private Public Partnership (PPP) in the health sector cannot be wished away because of its likely implications for access to healthcare by majority of poor Nigerians. The Yayale Committee Report on disharmony in the health sector gave a hint of government’s preparedness to adopt the policy.

    The report calls for the privatisation of federal hospitals in the country through the system of PPP. In retrospection, we recollect that the debate over the suitability of the idea started since 2006 when the National Council on Health (NCH) purportedly looked into the idea and approved it initially under former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration and last year under the President Jonathan’s administration.

    Sadly however, the initiative has thrown the health sector into avoidable pandemonium with the medical doctors supporting the idea and other stakeholders in the sector opposing it. The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), the Medical and Dental Consultants Association of Nigeria (MDCAN), Assembly of Healthcare Professional Associations (AHPA) and Joint Health Sector Union (JOHESU) have been at daggers drawn over the suitability or otherwise of the policy idea. Clearly, the medical doctors are in support of the idea while those belonging to sister associations are against the idea. This altercation becomes unfortunate because the health care sector in recent times has faced damning strikes and other avoidable challenges including inadequate funding and corrupt disposition by personnel. So, any attempt, in our view, at ignoring these discordant tunes might further aggravate an already bad situation.

    To us, competition is nonsense when it comes to healthcare as choice becomes illusory. The perception that competitiveness breeds quality and that market forces drive efficiency from the nation’s experience can sometimes be exaggerated. It is a perceived fact that privatization of the hospitals could become a recipe for over-treatment, overcharging and corner cutting on the delicate issues of human health and safety. What privatisation of hospitals might lead to, going by the Nigerian experience with privately owned hospitals, is high costs and inefficiency. Patients suffer since they are left at the mercy of investors who ceaselessly seek to make returns and maximise profits to the detriment of proper healthcare delivery.

    ‘We do not think that privatisation is the solution here. Rather, the hospitals should be made substantially autonomous and self-sustaining. In many parts of the world, private hospitals and public ones run together. Health is too important to be left in the hands of private investors alone’

    We aver that privatisation of these hospitals is likely to be inimical to the wellbeing of Nigerians who are already living below poverty line. Why would hospitals not work despite the huge resources that government votes for the health sector yearly? We recollect that most of these hospitals competed with their counterparts in other parts of the world a few decades ago. This is why it is disheartening to see that things have deteriorated so much that the only option left seems to be privation. The hospitals, like most other government institutions, started to fail as a result of over-centralisation. Another problem is that of overzealous policing that is ineffective to allow for thorough monitoring of government establishments, including hospitals, which creates a bureaucracy that allows corruption to fester.

    We do not think that privatisation is the solution here. Rather, the hospitals should be made substantially autonomous and self-sustaining. In many parts of the world, private hospitals and public ones run together. Health is too important to be left in the hands of private investors alone. There should be option of making top public hospitals to be affordable for the less privileged. Whatever the case, some of the problems that made the hospitals derelict are traceable to corruption and that needs to be dealt with.

  • Medicare excites Ubima community

    Medicare excites Ubima community

    Youths, women, children and the elderly from Ubima community in  Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State will not forget in a hurry the benefits of a medical mission, which they recently hosted.

    The gesture was courtesy the All Grace Energy Limited and Western Ord Oil and Gas Nig Limited.

    The companies came up with this idea as part of their corporate social responsibility after acquiring oil wells deposited in the community. for which a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will soon be signed.

    Some of the beneficiaries, who spoke to our correspondent during the programme held at Ubima Health Centre, said the companies brought great relief  to them. They noted that the exercise was timely because of the rainy period when many farmers fall sick.

    •A beneficiary having his blood pressure examined
    •A beneficiary having his blood pressure examined

    One of the beneficiaries, Elder Eyidah Louis, said: “   I am very grateful to the organisers of this free medical programme.  I was passing by when I saw crowd and I decided to enter and they attended to me. You can see my drugs.   I am very happy that I was attended to. We want them to come back again they may not know the good they are doing to us, it is a very big relief to the members of the community.”

    Another beneficiary, Mr. James Alikor, said he was sick and  had no money to treat himself when he heard of the medical mission. He thanked the companies for initiating the idea.

    A member of the community, Innocent Okachi, said the youths  have endorsed the oil companies for facilitating the programme when they have not started the business which brought them to the area.  He added that they were glad that the  companies were coming to their community with good intention.

    Dr Sagbemi Babatope of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH), who was among the medical team, said:  “Here we have received and treated patients with dental problems, ranging from toothache and poor oral hygiene, which is common to a village that does not  have  dental services. So far, we have been able to do some extractions. Like the woman I am treating here, she was having mouth odour but after this treatment she will be okay.

    “The facilitators of this programme have tried a lot to ensure the good health of the people of this community. By the time we are done with them, they will see the difference from their previous experience.  As for the drugs, it will be enough, I have already attained to 50 patients on the dental department alone.”

    Another Medical Practitioner, Dr. Martin   Ejire, said:  “So far so good, we are impressed with the turn out. The most important thing is that we came to this community and the people appreciated it. You can see that they are happy and willing to appreciate the good gesture. We are treating the disease we called cataract, which always affects some part of the eyes when weak. But it is not a peculiar problem to the people of this community. It also happened to those in township. We came prepared to ensure that the people are healthy; there are a lot of classes to give out. “

    Responding on behalf of the companies, Mr. Gafar Yemi Olagunju said: “All Grace Energy Nig. Ltd/Western Ord Oil and Gas Nig Limited are companies with human face. We are coming to the community to carry out our social responsibility. We felt we should let the community know what we have in stock for them. This is the first thing we have done; we are going to do more of this. The idea is to ensure that the people we are working with are healthy; we want people to realise that we mean business. The first action also shows that we have the community in our heart; we will like to say that we are working with the people with the same platform with us.”

  • Lawmaker’s free medicare for constituents

    Lawmaker’s free medicare for constituents

    The member representing Bende North State Constituency in the Abia State House of Assembly, Hon. Ndukwe Ojukwu has assured his constituents that their health will remain his priority.

    Hon. Ojukwu spoke at Apuanu Item during a four-day free medical treatment organised by Owani Professional Foundation (OPF), in collaboration with Ojukwu Foundation and the Methodist Church. He said health is the foundation of a every

    Ojukwu regretted the high mortality rate of infants and expectant mothers experienced in the rural areas in the past which he attributed to ignorance on the part of parents, even as he urged a change towards reducing the mortality rate.

    He praised the efforts of the team of doctors numbering 20 for their dedication to duty during the four-day free medical treatment and their excellent service which has helped in improving the health of members of his constituents.

    The lawmaker said healthy people make a wealthy nation, adding that there would be no meaningful development in a society when the health of the people is in serious jeopardy.

    Ojukwu further said the free medical treatment exercise was a yearly programme which aims at complementing the efforts of Governor Theodore Orji, whom he said has done much in the health sector.

    The lawmaker recalled that Ndukwe Ojukwu Foundation has, since 2011, settled hospital bills of all mothers who were delivered of their babies in any government hospital and maternity homes in the area.

    He noted that the emphasis on government hospitals and maternity homes aimed at discouraging expectant mothers from patronising quarks which may result in serious complications and possible deaths which his foundation aims to reduce.

    Hon. Ojukwu praised the efforts of the OPF and their boss Prof. Mba Okoronkwo who is the Dean of School of Health Sciences, National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) for his resilience in piloting the affairs of the body and bringing doctors to Item.

    He said their efforts have helped in reducing the high rate of infant and maternal mortality in his constituency, adding that members of his constituency will never forget them in a hurry.

    Speaking with our correspondent on their experiences, Mrs. Ijeoma Anyaele, Mr. Ikechukwu Kalu and Madam Ejije Igwe who benefitted from the free medical exercise expressed their happiness over the lawmaker’s gesture, even as they prayed God to reward the organisers for their wonderful concern for the needy.

  • Club gives free medicare

    The Ikeja Golden Lion Club of Lagos has conducted a free medical screening for hypertension, diabetes and high blood pressure patients. It also held awareness lectures on various ailments.

    The exercise was one of the numerous projects of the club to make Nigerians their health status. From there, patients with serious ailments were referred to hospitals for better treatment.

    Speaking on the programme, the president of the club, Lion Mercy Aje-Omosun said: “the effort is part of the organisation’s initiatives to help the less-privileged in the society. We also assist widows, the motherless children and the poor generally with gifts.”

    She said further: “So many Nigerians are walking corpses as they do not know their health status. The club, therefore, assists in creating health awareness and make them regain their health balance”.

    Golden Lion Club is a non-governmental and non-profit making organisation whose members source for fund to help Nigerians.

    Aje-Omosun said there is nothing as good as having good health as it is the key to all achievements or development. The club has therefore, taken it upon itself to give free medicare to Nigerians every month at different locations. Besides, it will create awareness and impart knowledge on health issues.

    The Programme Officer, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr Abimbola Sinowo, spoke on silent killer diseases such as hypertension and diabetes. She said many people do not know that they have these diseases until they get to the advanced stage. She, therefore, urged residents to always take advantage of such opportunity to know their health status. She also recommended regular exercise to burn off excess fats and carbohydrates in the body as well as regular intake of vegetable.

    Also present at the event was the chairperson medical care of the club, Lion Olayinka Adejoke Adebanjo who gave vital tips on how to deal with the ailments while the treasurer, Lion Nike Aiyepe provided the needed assistance.

  • Free medicare for Nyanya residents

    The Graceville Christian Centre, Abuja will in November organise a free medical programme for residents of Nyanya, in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.

    The programme, meant for all categories  of persons in the area, is expected to cost the church about N3.5 million.

    The Senior Pastor of the Church, Pastor Tunde Ayeni who spoke with journalists in Abuja on the free health mission and other activities lined up for the second anniversary of the Church scheduled for July 14 in the Abuja Headquarters, said foreign medical personnel will be invited to attend to willing residents during the medical show.

    He said there will be free medical check for interested persons as well as giving out of drugs for the cure of various ailments and diseases.

    Speaking on the second anniversary of the Church with the theme, Grace to Grace, Pastor Ayeni said with the story which started from a sitting room to its present edifice in Maitama

    Area of the city now, it is purely a story of “Grace to Grace”

    He said various artistes such as Samsong, Asu Ekiye, Solomon Lange among others will be on ground during the anniversary to entertain the congregation and other invited guests.

    Pastor Ayeni added that the church intends to embark on its Church building project and open more branches within Abuja and other states of the federation.

    Speaking on plans to also set up a State- of the -Art Studio in the Church, the Senior Pastor said the studio will give young artistes opportunities to record their works at cheaper rates adding that the studio will be equipped with gadgets that will make recordings very convenient.

    “Apart from engaging the youth, the church from time to time spend millions of Naira in catering for the poor in the society, “we give food items to the needy, we pay rents, school fees, recently, the church paid 1000 Dollars into the account of a foreign student in Malaysia to complete his studies”

    On security in Churches, Pastor Ayeni said community policing should be more encouraged as it has been seen to have worked well everywhere in the world.

    He said children should be taught to be more observant and they should be enlightened on the benefits of security.

     

  • 27,373 rural dwellers get free medicare

    27,373 rural dwellers get free medicare

    Kogi State government said 27, 373 rural dwellers had benefited from free medical treatment under its Free Rural Medical initiative launched on March 13.

    The Special Adviser to the state governor on Free Medical And Charity, Capt. Yakubu Okatahi, who announced this in Lokoja , said women and children constituted a greater percentage of the beneficiaries.

    He also said that peasant farmers , traders and artisans were among the beneficiaries of the free medical care programme .

    Okatahi, who gave an update on the free medical programme, said high blood pressure, goitre, malaria, hernia and cataract, were among the cases handled by the four medical groups sent to rural areas in the three senatorial districts of the state.

    According to him, complicated and long-term cases are being referred to the state Specialist Hospital in Lokoja, with clear instructions that such patients should be treated free of charge.

    The Special Adviser said that all the beneficiaries were also given drugs free of charge.

    He expressed hope that the programme would cover 40, 000 rural dwellers, which he said was the target set by the state government, before it would end on April 24.

    Okatahi said the impact of the free medical service that was a partnership between the state government and a Lagos-based NGO— CEDIO— would be felt in all the 21 local government areas of the state.

    He said the four medical teams comprising doctors , nurses, pharmacists and laboratory scientists, were being assisted by the local governments’ medical personnel.

  • e-health records will improve medicare

    e-health records will improve medicare

    Experts have advocated Electronic Health Records (EHR) in the health care delivery system for better outcome.

    According to the President, Health Information Managers Association of Nigeria (HIMAN), Mr Wole Ajayi, this will aid hospital services and ensure quality improvement and best practices.

    Ajayi, who spoke at a National Working Committee Conference Meeting on ‘Electronic Health Records’ (EHR) in Lagos, said the reason for EHR is to enhance easy accessibility of patients health records, make health care safer, more effective and of higher quality.

    “With EHR, patients will get correct prescriptions as chances of mistaking case files for another will be prevented. EHR is an evolving concept that must be embraced by Heath Institutions in Nigeria,” he said.

    Ajayi described EHR as a systematic collection of electronics health information about individual patient or population. “It has the potentials of sharing patients’ information among different health care settings. The sharing can occur through the network – connected enterprises wide information system and other information networks or exchanges.” He added.

    He said EHR provides electronic record of patient’s health information generated by one or more encounters in any care delivery settings. This information, he added, are patient’s wire range of data, which also include demographic, medical history medication and allergies.

    Others are personal details and the billing information and immunisation, among others.

    The adoption of EHR, he said, will provide organiations with the information concerning patient needs and staff impact along with information system benefits.

    “It will also be of use to expert on best technology investment and to make best decision regarding the management of patients because the information would have been pulled together without any delay, thereby reducing cost of treatment and informed decision making on capital investment. This will ensure maximum result and consulting assistance.

    “In Nigeria hospitals, papers based records are still by far the most widely used method of capturing patient’s information. Many health care providers consider this method as very easy and convenient to record medical data at the point of care. The cost of putting in place storage facilities to accommodate these records become very high and information differ significantly from that of electronics storage media. The process and procedures for collecting records stored at different location becomes very complicated and time consuming,” he said.

    Ajayi said observed facts have shown that the manual records keeping can be accessed by unauthorised persons, adding that this it is capable of contributing to medical errors due to poor readable handwritten of paper medical records.

    The Chairman of the occasion, Daniel Akanji said EHR among other factors will help to reduce time wasting in hospitals both for the medical practitioners and patients.

    He added that there will be improved access to fast and cheap information regarding patient’s health care, this, he said will go a long way in adding to our development as a country.