Edo State government collaborates with Rotary Family Health Days in the prevention of diseases and public enlightenment on healthcare as a whole, even as the state government has taken extra measure in improving the healthcare needs of the people through the connectivity of the healthcare facilities to fibre optics with capability to convert to telemedicine.
This is as the Rotary Action Group for Family Health and Aids Prevention in Collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation officially flagged off the Annual Free Nationwide Health Service Event tagged ‘Rotary Family Health Days at the New Benin Primary Healthcare Centre.’
Speaking at the flag off ceremony, Dr Omosigho Izedomwen, Executive Secretary, Edo State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, expressed satisfaction with the approach being used by the Rotary Club and also for the use of the government healthcare facility at the New Benin Primary Healthcare, while also commending the Rotary for the free healthcare services to members of the community.
He noted that oftentimes, the people think the government is a spirit that lives from the sky, “government is all of us, so when we all collaborate, we will find out that we can dispatch some of these things easily. It is not just the duty of members of Rotary alone but with everyone.”
The executive secretary also used the occasion to call on doctors, nurses and others who are far off to donate a token of their time to seeing patients via telemedicine, and this is when their contribution will be felt in the society.
In his brief remark at the flag off for the three-day free healthcare ceremony, the National Coordinator for Rotary Family Health Days, PDG Bola Oyebode, said most of the activities being carried out entails screening, texting the people and certain referrals so that the people can know their status in terms of health and eventually take proper treatment.
He however noted there are some little treatments Rotary is able to finance through some Rotary Club or noble bodies, while there are some they are not able to sustain and fund, and in that level they just do a referral to people and they are able to get the treatment they might require.
Also speaking, the representative of the District Governor, Ikponmwosa Ogiemudia, appreciated the Governor for the opportunity given to them to make use of the facility, noting that the main focus of the Rotary Family Health Days is to render free healthcare services to the people, especially those in the rural areas.
The District Coordinator, Andrew Oiboh, said the flag off of the free Rotary Family Health Days is to bring more awareness to what Rotary is doing to humanity in the world and that it is something they do for humanity and enjoy doing.
The three-day free healthcare services includes malaria screening and treatment, HIV testing and counselling, Hepatitis B&C, eye testing, dental care, deworming for children, distribution of free mosquito nets, prostrations cancer screening, among others.
