NAS makes case for quality healthcare, laments fate of rural areas

Forum 11 months ago

NAS makes case for quality healthcare, laments fate of rural areas

The National Association of Seadogs, NAS, otherwise known as the Pyrates Confraternity, Thursday, urged the Nigerian government to be consistent in the provision of quality healthcare to citizens, saying many rural communities were being neglected.

NAS made this call while providing free medical services to residents of Ado Soba in the Amuwo-Odofin area of Lagos State.

NAS Capoon, Mr. Abiola Owoaje, who spoke at Bola Ahmed Tinubu Primary Healthcare Centre, where the free medical mission was held, said the association would continue to cater to the well-being of Nigerians.

He said: “We recognise that the government, as much as they would like to do what they do, it is not always possible for them to be able to carry out these services to the community. We will continue to do this; and we will continue to improve on the services that we bring to the people.

“We have data on the kind of services that we provide, and instances of the issues that we meet on the field. With this, it is a kind of advocacy where we speak to the government asking why they are unable to provide all these services, and see how we can improve things both in suggesting the best practices for the government, and also how the community can benefit from the elective representatives that they have.”

Owoaje, who added that NAS provided deworming tablets for patients, said the association also gave the healthcare centre some equipment to use in treating their patients.

He noted that the common types of drugs, particularly tablets for treating malaria were supplied, saying all of the items were free of charge.

He said: “We do this on a very regular basis at least five to six times a year. What we do is to provide free medical services to the community. We usually make it to coincide with when we have our annual general meetings or our quarterly general meetings.

“This takes place in various parts of Nigeria. We do this in recognition of the fact that a lot of people have fallen outside of the catchment nets in terms of provision of basic medical care to the community.

“What we do most of the time is to provide our medicine within rural areas where it has been a challenge for the government to be consistent in the service that they provide. Quite often, you will find that people who are in urban areas get more access to these services than people in rural areas.”

On his part, NAS Medical Pyrate, Dr Uche Nwachukwu, said the role of NAS was to point out that there were people in that community who needed the services.

His words: “It is not that the government may not be aware but it is to call to remembrance that there are people in this place. Part of why we ended up in this primary healthcare centre is that while planning for where to do this, we reached out to the community, held meeting with them and the staff here.

“We have a general idea of what the needs are which also informs our decision. The primary healthcare board is aware that we are here. At the end of this exercise, we will give them a feedback of what we found. Whatever we give them may help guide their policy as regards this place.”

Also speaking, Baale of Soba, Chief Jimoh Raheem, said: “We need more doctors and nurses so that we can always come here to treat ourselves and our family members because we have about four communities here with thousands of people.”