The Management of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Nasarawa State has inaugurated its Health Initiative for Rural Dwellers (HIRD) medical outreach for first quarter of 2022 in the state.
The coordinator of the scheme in the state, Mr Abdullahi Jikamshi, inaugurated the medical outreach in Loko community in Nasarawa Local Government Area of the state on Thursday.
According to Jikamshi, HIRD is a medical outreach on the platform of the NYSC Community Development Service (CDS) designed to reach out to rural communities, in most cases isolated communities, to review their medical conditions and provide medical care for the sick in the communities at no cost.
“We visit them at their doorstep and bring along medical personnel, corps medical personnel such as doctors, nurses and pharmacists who listens to them and provide prescription where necessary, some counselling and even at times referrals to medical facilities that can handle ailments we can handle here,” he said.
He said that the medical outreach would be for four days and carried out in three communities which includes Loko and Ara communities in Nasarawa Local Government Area and Marhai community in Wamba Local Government Area of the state.
Jikamshi blamed circumstances beyond the scheme’s control for the late conduct of the first quarter HIRD in the year revealed that the target of the medical outreach in terms of those expected for treatment was between 10,000 and 15,000 patients.
Jikamshi then appreciated the Emir of Loko, Alhaji Abubakar Sabi, for his support and help to call on his people to come out for the medical outreach.
He also thanked partners of the scheme who selflessly provided medical drugs and other needs for the outreach to be conducted and succeed.
In a remark, Emir of Loko, Alhaji Abubakar Sani, expressed joy with the scheme for choosing his domain to inaugurate the first quarter of 2022 HIRD medical outreach which he said would go a long way to assist his people evaluate their health situation.
He then called on the people to come out en masse to receive medical consultation, treatment and referral for whatever ailment they are suffering from.
He also appealed to the NYSC staff and the corps medical team carrying out the outreach not to be in haste but take their time to ensure every sick indigent of the community is attended to.
Speaking in an interview, Dr Ado Sanusi, the head of the NYSC Corps medical team saddled with carrying out the medical outreach, said that the team’s focus was to offer basic primary care ranging from consultation, ordering basic medical investigation such as malarial tests, blood sugar levels and blood pressure checks, among others.
He then expressed satisfaction with the turnout of people of the community which he described as massive.
“The turnout is really encouraging and I am really happy with that. I appreciate the people for coming out en masse to evaluate their health status,” he said.
In another interview, Mr Salihu Mohammed, a patient and indigene of the community lauded the initiative and said if the federal, state and local governments would carry out such medical outreach, medical challenges or cases would reduce drastically.