It was a massive turnout of residents of Ikeja Federal Constituency as the Rt Hon James Abiodun Faleke Medical Outreach commenced on Saturday at the Ikeja Local Government Council Secretariat.
The second edition of the annual Faleke’s healthcare partnering with Doctors on the Move Africa, has already recorded over a thousand patients seeking medicals for various ailments ranging from fibroid, hernia, appendicitis, blood pressure, pregnancy complications, prostate and a host of eye complications.
The Medical Officer for Health (MOH) Ikeja Local Government Council, Dr Oluwatoyin Oluwatomiloba in a chat with Lagos Panorama during a consultation section at the Outreach expressed her gratitude and appreciation to Rt Hon Faleke for providing the grassroots medical outreach
Dr Oluwatomiloba averred that “Hon James Faleke didn’t only help the Ikeja people with this grassroots medical outreach but also generation unborn, this is quite impressive and commendable, for he has also helped in the area of surgeries, and more importantly in the area of general medical screenings, and even for our children are beneficiaries, our men have also been able to know their prostrate health level, it’s a very good idea.
I would want to thank the facilitator of this event, Rt. Hon Hames Faleke, on behalf of my boss and I would want to commend him for a great input seeing to the health of Ikeja community as a whole, he has not only helped these patients but he has also helped generations to come and his legacy would definitely live long, so I would want to encourage him as God would continue to empower him to continue to do this kind of work and prayer is that his pocket will never run dry and he would continue to go higher and higher in Jesus name. so we really love his input for ikeja, we love him, we love what he is doing and he should keep it up” she concluded.
The Lead Surgeon and team leader of ‘Doctors on the Move Africa, Dr Joseph Haruna Kigbu stated that the indigenous group is a non-governmental organization saddled with providing healthcare to the less privilege in Nigeria and the rest of Africa.
Dr. Kigbu said “we are at the operating theatre of the General Hospital, Ifako-Ijaiye, one of the Lagos State Secondary level of care for the Lagos State Government. We are doing surgical operations haven screened patients from the Ikeja Central where we’re doing the medical outreaches, we’ve seen cases with hernia, hydrocele, glaucoma, uterine fibroids, goiter, and a host of others”.
“By the grace of God, I have just operated two patients that had uterine fibroids beneath the abdominal biometry, the surgeries were very successful”.
“We’ve a large pool of patients, you can look at my list we’ve 32 antrectomy surgery but some of them have not been able to procure blood for safety during the surgery for transfusion. We hope to do some today and others tomorrow”
“We’ve already done 18 successful operations and still counting, as you can see other surgeons are in the theatre working. The surgeries have been very successful, the patients are happy”.
“These are surgeries that would have cost each of them hitherto between N500, 000 to 1 million naira, but they’ve gotten them free of charge, courtesy of our sponsor Rt. Hon James Faleke, the Honourable Member Representing Ikeja Federal Constituency. We are going to be here for the next seven more days, actually nine more days, so we hope to be able to do surgeries to the tune of about 200 to 300” Dr. Kigbu affirmed.
“Our ophthalmologist is also on ground, he’ll be doing cataract surgery and optometry. So this a comprehensive medical outreach to the people of Ikeja Federal Constituency and indeed Lagos State, this programme seize to fill in the gaps in the healthcare delivery system in Nigeria. You’re aware that a lot of them do not any form of healthcare insurance, and a lot of them cannot afford these surgeries. So this is a veritable tool to reach-out and benefit a lot of the poor masses in the Federal Constituency and in deed Nigeria”.
Dr. Kigbu also advised government “so I encourage government at all levels to key into some of these ad hoc programmes that really relieves the patients of the burden of paying hospital bills”.
“Like I said this is a comprehensive medical outreach, by implication it means that all the component of a hospital service care is being rendered, at the Ikeja Local Council Secretariat we have about 10 doctors screening patients, screening them for malaria, typhoid, diabetes, for hypertension, doing basic tests like random blood sugar, hepatitis, test for prostate cancer, test for malaria”.
He also briefed Lagos Panorama that 3,000 glasses will be distributed in the three centers of the medical outreach “A lot of the patients who are elderly require refraction and reading glasses, we’ll be giving a thousand glasses, within three days in Ikeja, another one thousand at Onigbongbo and another thousand glasses at Ojodu”.
It’s a comprehensive outreach that patients with diabetics are given drugs for upward of 2-4 weeks for free, and also for hypertension. We have sufficient drugs to cater for at least 3,000 patients at every location. This is a project facilitated and sponsored fully by the member representing Ikeja Federal Constituency, Rt. Hon James Abiodun Faleke, as an organization we thank him immensely for this kind of partnership, we enjoy doing it with those who have the wherewithal, so we can reach-out to the less privileged, especially to the indigent ones in our community”.
Over a thousand residents of the Ikeja Federal Constituency have benefited so far since on Saturday when the annual Medical Outreach started.
Personal Aide to the Federal Lawmaker who oversees the activities of outreach, Mr. Ademola Banjo at the Ifako General Hospital where surgical operations were on going, he elucidated on the event, he told Lagos Panorama that “As you may know that health is wealth, we all Hon Faleke for his kind gesture, as deemed fit, he provide this free medical outreach to residents of Ikeja Federal Constituency, today is the second day, all those referred from the Ikeja Local Government have been attended to in different surgical operations, all concluded by God’s grace”.
“The medical outreach started last year, this is the second Faleke Medical Outreach and is a 10-day event that started on Saturday and it will be in Ikeja for 3 days, before moving to Onigbongbo LCDA on Tuesday for another 3 days before the train move to Ojodu LCDA for another 3 days and hopefully by the 10th day all other surgical operations should be concluded at the Ifako General Hospital before the departure of the Doctors on the Move Africa team”.
Banjo further stated that “Rt Hon James Abiodun Faleke was satisfied with the first edition of the Medical Outreach hence the facilitation of the second edition and it shall continue to be an annual event because of the love, care and compassion our MHR have for members of his constituents “
“So far over 18 major surgeries have been done successfully in the first two days so you can figure out how many people that would have benefited after the 10-day outreach”.
This is an annual event because it’s an expression of Hon Faleke’s genuine love and compassion for the well-being of the people of Ikeja Federal Constituency, especially the downtrodden
Some of the beneficiaries who spoke with Lagos Panorama expressed their sincere appreciation and gratitude to Rt. Hon James Abiodun Faleke for sponsoring the medical out
