The Federal Government has been urged to make Primary Health Centres (PHCs) across the country more functional. The Executive Director of Westfield Development Initiatives (WDI), Mrs. Omobola Lana, stated this at a medical outreach in commemoration of this year’s World Malaria Day, at the Olugbede Market Car Park in Egbeda, Alimosho Local Government Development Area. It targeted 500 families. According to Mrs. Lana, the health outreach which is in its fourth year, has revealed that people are suffering in silence but can’t readily access healthcare services. She said: “It is amazing that people as early as 6:00am will troop out to come and pick numbers, so as to be attended to. They leave their trades and other engagements just to access simple routine checks like Blood Pressure (Bp) monitoring, body weight and BMI checks, hypertension and diabetic screenings, malaria tests, HIV/AIDS testing, and for pharmacy service for free drugs.
“From my interaction with the participants, I realised that most PHCs are not located within their reach, drugs are not available or affordable, likewise poor human resources to man those places. Here expectant mothers, nursing mothers and their children were attended to and men given Long Lasting Insecticide Treated Nets (LLINs), and also given to men for their families. It is so embarrassing to know that the largest local government area that has the largest number of adults that can vote does not have qualitative primary healthcare.” Mrs. Lana urged all levels of government to re-jig activities at the PHCs. “The world is always tending to preventive medicine instead of curative medicine. That is why medical and para-medical teams from the local government and a volunteer from Locke International Consultancy joined hand with Westfield Development Initiative to do this. “Malaria for example is preventable and treatable and WDI by this outreach aims to put more LLINs in homes, communicate the message of prevention and appropriate treatment seeking behaviour, and hopefully improve on preventive practices and reduce incidences of malaria in Alimoso. WDI seeks to improve the quality of life of Nigerians by eliminating conditions and diseases, such as malaria that hamper economy advancement through consultations and counseling service, and health education,” said Mrs. Lana.
Source: The Nation Online