Make Healthcare Delivery Affordable for Common Nigerians, Clergy Advises FG

The federal government has been called upon to make healthcare services affordable for the common citizens in the country.

Speaking during the annual RCCG Medical Outreach programme held in Oshodi for people in the area and its environment, Jeff Akanbi Aganbi, a clergy of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), who expressed regret that many Nigerians have been left to die from preventable death due to their inability to access affordable healthcare services, said government at all levels should invest more on the wellbeing of the people.

He appealed to the governments to sustain healthcare as a social welfare service to Nigerians, especially the poor and vulnerable in the society.

The one-day event which was organised in conjunction with Chike Okolie Foundation/Emzor Pharmaceuticals and Pharmatex Industries, attracted many Nigerians – including the old, youths and children from Oshodi and beyond who received a wide range of medical care.

It offered the people the opportunity to know their blood sugar level, blood pressure, cholesterol level, general body check-up and de-worming of children.

At the end of the various tests conducted on people by the medical experts, those discovered to be suffering from minor health conditions were given free drugs, while those with serious conditions were referred to specialist hospitals for further treatment.

Pastor Aganbi noted that the gesture of RCCG Area Headquarters, Oshodi, was to reach out to the less-privileged and complement government’s efforts in delivering quality and affordable healthcare services to its citizenry.

According to him, the programme was part of fulfilling their corporate social responsibility to the community.

He said, “We’re celebrating our 26th anniversary as a church and every year we do this – giving back to the community where we found ourselves. We believe that people have a lot of needs, but are unable to meet them, including medical and cost of living. So, the church provided them free tests, drugs and consultancy to see the doctors and nurses, that’s our way of giving back to the community. We call it Christian Social Responsibility and is targeted at 200 – 500 persons; we expect a minimum of 200 persons this year. We do it every year and this is our 12th year.

“The response of the people in the community has been awesome, it has been great. The people have been enthusiastic and appreciative. They look forward to it because we do it once a year and what the church is doing is to fill a gap in the health needs of the people.

“We believe the governments can do much more in terms of providing medical services; if not totally free, governments can make healthcare affordable to the people because people are dying every day because of lack of access to affordable healthcare services.

He commended Emzor Pharmaceuticals and Pharmatex Industries as well as Chike Okolie Foundation for partnering with the church in delivering free healthcare services to people in the community and its environment.

A family physician, Dr. Rotimi Adesanya, who was one of the medical experts that attended to people, said that many people in the country are moving around with serious life-threatening health conditions, but are not aware of it because of a lack of access to affordable healthcare service.

“We started this medical outreach on the invitation of the church, but we have noticed many people have medical conditions that they are not aware of. For example, among the first 10 people that we attended to, there was a woman with goitre; that’s neck swallowing, but she was not even aware. So, I think that’s one of the gains of this medical outreach. We have helped somebody to discover something that could kill a person gradually, but the medical outreach has helped in the discovery and she has been referred to a secondary care facility like general hospital to get care so that she would be able to enjoy her life.

“So my advice to philanthropists, corporate groups and other organisations is that they should do medical checks annually like the church as it helps people to discover diseases that people have,” Adesanya said.

“Governments should invest more in the health sector and make it affordable so that the commoners can have access to healthcare services,” he added.

Some of the community members who spoke at the event lauded the programme, labelling it as a lifesaving project that offers access to improve healthcare services to the people.

A member of the community, Papa Simeon Oluwole Adeleke, said, “It is a good programme and I want to thank all those who made it possible, especially RCCG Area Headquarters Oshodi. I want them to continue with the medical outreach because it has been helpful to the people. This is my second time and I’m feeling the impact because the treatment is nice. They brought doctors to examine us and gave us free drugs for treatment.”