About 5000 persons from 60years above, including adults and youths have benefitted from a one-day free medical outreach, organized by Otunba Yomi Akingbade Foundation (OYAF), a non-governmental organization, aimed to improve healthy living among the citizens in Akure, the Ondo state capital.
BusinessDay reports that the free medical outreach targeted at both young and old women and men covered; blood pressure levels, health education on chronic and preventive diseases, free medical check-ups, free distribution of basic medications, healthy eating and healthy living, dementia and memory loss awareness, hypertension, cholera, diabetes and distribution of free drugs.
Yomi Akingbade, the organizer of the free medical outreach while speaking with journalists said; “the main purpose for the outreach is to touch lives by providing basic health education for patients to take control of their health and to offer free healthcare consultation services with free medicines to those who cannot afford routine general medical check-ups or treatment.
“I did this for my people because I grew up in this town and the community has helped me a lot in this environment and this is the best time for me to give back to my community.
“I have a call to reach out to the underprivileged around me, which is why we are holding this medical outreach for our people.
“We decided to bring healthcare services closer to the people at no cost at all because it is a known fact that access to Medicare is a big challenge in Nigeria.
“A lot of people with one underlying ailment or the other are dying in silence because they cannot afford the hospital bills.
“We all know that health is wealth, and about 5000 people are benefitting from the free medical outreach. We need to improve our health sector, we should all be able to have access to quality healthcare in this country.
“I pray that we should have a good governance so that our health sector can be improved. I have spent almost 50million naira and I didn’t do this for any political motive, I want to give back to my community and less-privileged people and we will be doing it quarterly for us to be helping people medically and others.”
Akingbade, however, urged wealthy individuals to reach out to the underprivileged around them to reduce the level of poverty in the country.
Some of the beneficiaries, who expressed joy over the kind gesture; “thanked the foundation for availing them the free opportunity to know their health status without going to the hospital.
Yemisi Adeyeye, a 67-year-old woman, commended the foundation for the outreach and appealed to the government to conduct similar medical outreaches in the rural communities of the state.
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