THE Kogi Chapter of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), on Monday offered free medical services to the staff of Lokoja Local Government Area, Kogi State.
Dr Kabiru Zubair, the state’s chairman of NMA, told newsmen at the program venue at LG Secretariat, that the gesture was part of activities to mark the 2019 Physicians Week and Ordinary General Meeting (OGM) of the association.
According to Zubair, we are targeting 100 staffers of the LG for this free medical services, and that is what is currently going on now.
”We are looking at the basic common health challenges in our environment, such as blood pressure for hypertension, random blood sugar test for diabetes, and body mass index to check for obesity.
”As we are aware obesity is a major risk factor for hypertension, diabetes and some other diseases.
”We are also giving anti-ulcer drugs for ulcer patients,” he said.
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The chairman noted that the association would also on Oct. 15, be donating some free items to children at the Emergency Paediatric Unit (EPU) of the Federal Medical Centre and Kogi Specialist Hospital, Lokoja.
Zubair added that NMA also plans to donate some medical consumables to the management of the two hospitals as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) as an association,” Zubair said.
He further explained that the NMA in the course of the week would also engage their young doctors (House Officers), who had just come out of medical school to guide them on career progression and other life issues.
Mrs Fatima Abubakar, Director of Lokoja LGA (DLG), commended the NMA for the gesture describing it as a very good development.
”It shows that the NMA in Kogi is queuing up with Gov. Yahaya Bello with his new direction agenda on making sure that everybody is healthy.
”So, the idea is very key; you can see how our staffers came out en masse to embrace the program,” she said.
She, however, enjoined the association to extend the gesture to other local governments and other organisations, saying there was no amount of free medical services that would be enough.
One of the beneficiaries, Mr Abubakar Abdullahi, said that he was very grateful to the NMA for the medical checkups, saying he was given anti-ulcer drug.
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