Doctors lament checkup rate as ‘bottom priority’
Nigerian Medical Association has lamented poor health seeking behaviour, insisting Nigerians place it at the “bottom-most part of their priorities.” The “cliché health is wealth appears to have little or no meaning among the populace,” the association complained. But it praised moves by Niger state government to mandate annual health checkup for civil servants as […]
Nigerian Medical Association has lamented poor health seeking behaviour, insisting Nigerians place it at the “bottom-most part of their priorities.”
The “cliché health is wealth appears to have little or no meaning among the populace,” the association complained.
But it praised moves by Niger state government to mandate annual health checkup for civil servants as a matter of record, after a worker reportedly slumped while at work at the Niger State Government House in the capital Minna.
Bilkisu Mahmoud later died in hospital.
But state-mandated yearly physical for Niger civil servants came in what NMA called “a spontaneous response” to the sudden death of Mahmoud, according to the association’s president, Dr Osahon Enabulele.
The association applauded Niger state governor Babangida Aliyu for heeding to a wake-up call, saying it “couldn’t have been timelier.”
“The need to reduce incidences of sudden death and non-communicable diseases was partly why the NMA launched a healthy living and health check-up campaign last year, with a fervent call on all levels of government to make adequate provisions for free health check-up for Nigerian citizens under their jurisdiction, at least once a year,” said Dr Enabulele.
“NMA therefore enjoins all Nigerians to place health related issues, especially periodic medical check-ups at clinics and hospitals, at the prime most positions of their annual plan of activity and programs.”