Club holds medical outreach in Lagos community

No fewer than 1,000 residents of the Obalende community in the Lagos Island Local Government Area of Lagos State benefited from a medical outreach organised by the Lagos Achiever Lions Club.

The one-day medical outreach held on Saturday focused on basic health challenges such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and child cancer awareness among others.

Speaking on the necessity of the outreach, the club’s President, Oluyemi Imeobong, stressed that a need assessment conducted in the area informed the decision to undertake the outreach.

Imeobong noted that as part of the activities of the club for the year, the need assessment revealed that members of the community did not have access to quality and affordable healthcare.

She said, “During our need assessment of the Obalende community, we were told a lot of the residents have medical issues and because of how the time is, they are not able to go to a doctor or afford drugs. So we decided as a club to come here and give them free medical attention.

“Our target number is 1,000 but we have resources that can accommodate more if the turnout is more than that.”

In her remarks, a paediatrician at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Oladunni Okodugha, encouraged parents to be observant of signs of child cancer among their wards stressing that early detection would ensure a successful cure.

She said, “Most cancers are curable depending on the stage it was detected. If we don’t catch cancer early, it becomes incurable because we can’t operate on some parts of the body.

“The common type of cancer in children is leukaemia which presents symptoms such as high body temperature, weakness, bleeding from the nose and bloody spots on the body. There are different cancers with different signs but the earlier we detect the better it is for the child.”

She urged the government to provide health insurance for the citizens so that cancer treatment could be made affordable and accessible.

“Cancer treatment anywhere in the world is expensive. What will help us is health insurance. If the health insurance can cover childhood cancer, that will be great,” Okodugha concluded.

Also speaking, the founder of Healthextra Medical Service, Credo Obiefuna, noted that though medical outreach could not address critical health issues, it was necessary, especially in communities without access to affordable and quality healthcare.

He bemoans the lack of adequate healthcare workers which has posed a challenge to accessing quality healthcare in the country.

Obiefuna said, “I am sad doing medical outreach because I can’t give you what you want by just spending five minutes with you but like they say, half bread is better than none.

“We know that a whole lot of people are sick and they don’t get a chance to see a doctor, so we decide to partner with whoever is doing an outreach.

“People die of very simple ailments just because they can’t get to see a doctor. In an ideal society, you have certain numbers of doctors assigned to certain numbers of people.”

One of the beneficiaries of the outreach, Rilwan Afini, lauded the Lions Club for the initiative to provide medical outreach to the community.

He urged other social clubs and organisations to adopt the initiative of giving back to society.

“I have gone through the test and I am satisfied with it. I went through a hypertension test and I was given some drugs. I commend the process as it is well organised. I have decided to join the Lions Club because of the way I was attended to.

“I would like that this type of outreach should be extended to other communities because drugs are expensive and people are dying because they cannot afford drugs. With this outreach, it will help many people who cannot afford drugs,” Afini said.