BENIN CITY – Hundreds of patients waiting to benefit from the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA) and Subsidy Reinvestment Program (SURE-P) organized free health services, have begged for an extension of the four-day programme that ended on Thursday in Benin City.
It was observed that patients at the two venues, namely, Iyobosa Primary school and Urhokpota Hall Benin City respectively, were seen scrambling to be attended to by the health officials while they pleaded for an extension of time by another day.
The NECA-SURE-P programme coordinator, Dr Roseline Adu, while not giving a definitive answer to the extension request, “ told journalists that, “we first hope to see how it goes today.’’
Adu disclosed that, “although our target was 10,000, we have so far attended to about 5,000 patients since the commencement of the exercise on Monday and you can see the number of patients waiting to be captured.
“Although, we have run out of mosquito treated- nets, other services are ongoing,’’ she said.
Adu said that during the four-day programme, NECA and SURE-P had provided to patients such services like free HIV counseling, testing, sugar level testing, body mass indices, eye testing and drugs while they referred cases that required surgery to the conventional hospitals.
“All these are being funded with SURE-P fund domiciled within NECA,’’ she said.
A civil servant, Mr Peter Aigbangbe said, “I brought my father here to be tested. He has just been attended to.
“I brought my 70-year old mother here on the first day and the services on each of the day was excellent, especially when you think that health workers are still on strike,’’ he said.
The patients, who variously commended the organizers, applauded the crowd control mechanism manned by of officials of Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps.
