By; BILIQIS OLAJUMOKE ONAOLAPO, Ilorin
The Free Medical and Surgical Healthcare Intervention programme of the Kwara state government for year 2022 has taken off at Malete, Moro Local Government Area of the state.
According to a statement signed by the Press Secretary Kwara State Ministry of Health, Falade Gbenga Tayo, dated Friday August 5, 2022, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Raji Razaq, said the free health intervention is designed to create opportunities for members of the public with various health challenges to access free qualitative health care.
According to Dr Raji, members of the public will benefit from the free services such as medical consultation, general surgery, eye surgery and provision of reading glasses.
The commissioner, while interacting with the beneficiaries, community leaders and health workers at Malete reiterated the commitment of Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq’s administration to providing succour to all segments of the society.
Dr. Raji stated that the free health care service is being moved from one community to the other on weekly basis per Local Government Area and that all the Local Government Areas of the state would be visited.
He expressed satisfaction with the quality of services being rendered and further explained that the commencement of the Year 2022 round of the outreach marked the onset of the eighth round of community based state-wide health care interventions embarked upon by this administration.
The matron in charge of the Comprehensive Health Centre, Malete, Alhaja Afusat Mohammed, which hosted the medical and surgical outreach, expressed delight at government’s concern for the less privileged who usually find it difficult to afford the cost of such surgical services.
The father of one of the beneficiaries, Mr Oseni Rafiu, commended the state government’s efforts at ensuring delivery of qualitative health care services to the citizens. He said ‘our story has changed for good in Kwara State, we pray for many more of this kind of life changing interventions’.
The team lead of the medical and surgical outreach, Dr. Stephen Arigidi, said the turnout has been impressive and that the team has enough people on ground to meet the target of providing medical, general and Eye surgery and glasses to well over 500 beneficiaries.
Dr. Arigidi said the team is complying with the timetable as advertised and that the next point of call would be the Dr. Aisha Muhammadu Buhari Mother and Child Hospital at Eyenkorin, Thursday next week, where the Asa LGA edition of the free state-wide exercise has been planned to hold.
