The Rotary Club of Jos District 9125 on Thursday revealed that it is targeting to treat over 1, 800 patients of various diseases in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, Plateau State in its three-day outreach.
Dr. Godwin Osaigbovo, the Assistant Governor of Rotary Club, said in Jos that the outreach would cater for 600 patients daily in the communities visited.
He noted that the treatments would range from cancer screenings and treatments of a wide range of communicable and non-communicable diseases.
“This outreach is a free medical service that we offer to communities that are far from the urban centres where health facilities are not always available to people.
“We all know that there is a dearth of health workers in the communities, doctors don’t want to stay in rural areas, everybody wants to be in the urban centres where social amenities are available.
“So, the programme is intended by Rotary International to reach the rural areas where people do not have access to quality medical service, it holds every October.
“We give free health talks, screen patients for communicable and non-communicable diseases, and also treat them for the different conditions that we find they have.
“Also, there might be conditions that cannot be treated in a medical outreach of this nature, in such cases, we refer the patient to quality centres where they can assess good care”, he said.
Osaigbovo noted that the choice of Barkin-ladi for the outreach “is to breach the gap so that non-urban communities can also benefit from such opportunities.”
He, therefore, encouraged members of the communities to take advantage of the opportunity and ensure their health needs are attended to.
“In previous years, we carried out this programme in Jos North and Jos South, so I want to say that they are fortunate here that we are reaching out to them this year.
“And so for the following years, we will be going to Pankshin, Shandam, Langtang and the rest of the local governments”, he said.
Da Edward Gyang, the traditional ruler of Barkin-Ladi community, commended the Rotary Club for the sacrifice.
“You have now come to Barkin Ladi, we will like to have some members here too so that your presence will be felt always,” he said.
Jock Alamba, the Chairman Barkin Ladi local Government Area, who was represented by Choji Dalyop, the secretary of the local government council, commended Rotary Club for the intervention and thanked them for the choice of Barkin Ladi as a beneficiary community.
Davou Dame and Hafsah Aliyu some patients who had already received treatments expressed gratitude to Rotary Club, saying they could never afford to do the extensive checks with their resources in hospitals.