Dennis Ashley clinic holds outreach to fight non-communicable diseases

In a bid to join in the fight against the spread on non-communicable diseases, Dennis Ashley wellness clinic recently held a community health outreach to enlighten people on how best to stay safe.

The medical outreach themed “Fight on non-communicable diseases,” was held at the Onikan health center on Tuesday hosted medical practitioners and stakeholders in the sector where free medical consultations as well as treatment were given to participants.

Speaking on the need for education of the public, Oge Ilegbune, the principal clinician Dennis and Ashley wellness clinic said that “As general practitioners, we are faced with lots of people who come in with complications of diseases that are preventable and easily controlled. It seemed a bit selfish to stay in the clinic, have patients pay and we keep dealing with complications all the time. We then realized that education and awareness is a key part of mission, vision and vocation”.

Stating that health care is holistic in nature, Ilegbune said that doctors needed to do more in educating their patients about their health and the need for routine health check-ups.

“In a society like ours with poor access to health and lack of the right information, the country is a long way from where it should be, and there should be more partnership amongst medical practitioners as against prevalent competition currently being experienced,” Ilegbune added.

Chima Oti, co-director, Dennis Ashley wellness clinic who also spoke at the event said the outreach was very important as proper enlightenment about these non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer, amongst others has not been attained.

“For example, hypertension doesn’t really come with symptoms so a lot of people are walking the streets with hypertension and they don’t know. If we take the blood pressure of two hundred people and we are able to educate those whose blood pressure is high, we can save lives and prevent a complication like stroke. There is a lot of work to be done but it is worth the time if a life can be saved,” Oti added.

According to the organisers, the Onikan health center was chosen because of its location on the island and its level of professionalism. There is a serious need for public private partnership in the health sector especially in creating awareness as private hands can only do so much.

The outreach that is in its second year usually holds in May and October every year and the organizers are hoping that this could create a better awareness of the importance of proper health care and knowledge of the things that people should do in order to stay healthy.

Activities at the outreach included blood pressure check, blood sugar testing, drug dispensing, clinical breast and cervical cancer screening, visual inspection with acetic acid, prostrate evaluation, basic eye check, glasses prescription, dental check, nutritionist and physiotherapist consult amongst others.

There was huge turnout of participants as free medical consultations were given to all participants.