From Abel Leonard, Lafia
National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) in collaboration with the Nasarawa state government and the Nigeria Medical Association are giving over 5,000 residents in Nasarawa free medical treatment ranging from malaria, typhoid, HIV, hypertension, including surgery among others.
At the flagging off of the five-day free medical outreach programme at Doma Local Government Area of the state, which commenced on Friday, the Special Adviser to the Governor on NGO and International Partners, Hajia Munira Abdullahi, said the programme is to ensure that the health of the people in the state is taken into consideration.
Hajiya Munira, at whose instance the programme was organised, further stated that the state government would continue to explore various avenues towards reaching out to organizations as part of efforts towards improving the living standards of residents of the state, especially in the areas of child and maternal health.
In his welcome address, the Commissioner for Health, Pharm Yahaya Baba Ahmed, represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr Janet Angbazo, welcomed the team from the NPHCDA to Nasarawa, while appreciating their efforts towards ensuring that the health of the people in the state is taken care of and believed that a lot of people would benefit from the exercise.
Explaining the essence of the programme NPHCDA National Secretary Dr Faisal Shauib, represented by the Acting Director, Community Health Services of the agency, Dr Chris Elemuwa, who said the programme is aimed at providing access to better health care for the unreached.
He further stated that the initiative was a deliberate approach to scale up the health indices in line with the drive to achieve universal health coverage for the country while noting that Nasarawa is one of the young states with health gaps hence the need to think outside the box to address the trend.
Giving an overview of the outreach is the Chairman of the Nigeria Medical Association, NMA who is also the leader of the medical team, Dr Sabo Emmanuel, disclosed that 46 health workers including 30 doctors were deployed from Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital Lafia and Federal Medical Centre Keffi to treat the patients of various ailments.
He further stated that 5,000 people had been targeted to benefit from the free medical services including major and minor surgeries.
Daily Sun interviewed some of the beneficiaries, Mrs Fati Sabo who said they examined her eyes which she had been suffering from for a long time and gave her medicated glasses free of charge.
Another beneficiary, Mr Musa O’Sabo, expressed gratitude to the organizers as the outreach had given him the opportunity to know his Hepatitis status and sugar level.
Other services provided during the free medical outreach include COVID-19 tests and vaccination as well as HIV/AIDS screening.