A non-governmental organisation under the auspices of Axios Senior Citizens Foundation has called on the government at all levels to improve healthcare delivery for the aged people in society for them to have a sense of belonging.
Chief executive officer of Axios Senior Citizens Foundation, Murjanatu Habibu, made the call during the medical outreach organised in the Kubwa district of Abuja for the elderly people by the foundation where over 150 aged people benefited from free medical services.
Habibu said that globally, people wrongly link old age to retirement, pension collection, and withdrawal from society and that this perception needs to be reviewed because the aged can still be very active in nation-building.
“We aim to reintegrate and re-engage our seniors back to society by making them more active and by encouraging social interactions for them. This will be achieved through our planned services such as day centres, foodbank, and social clubs.
“We aim to get our seniors involved in things they used to love or encourage them to learn at least a new skill. These activities will reduce the sedentary lifestyle seniors are usually pushed into after retirement and in old age. We aim to promote active aging, and reduce depression and other age-related diseases,” she said.
A pioneer and board of trustee member of the foundation, Habibu Aliyu, while speaking during the outreach, said that although there is a large population of the aged in the country, government cannot do everything for the people.
“However, what the government is doing is not enough, because it does not go round. The government should improve the hospitals and make medical care readily available to the elderly in society. That when they go to the hospitals they can easily be attended to,” he said.
A senior medical practitioner, Dr Tony Momoh, who volunteered to attend to the elderly people during the medical outreach urged the government to be more proactive in caring for the aged, because most of them have served the government and retired, so they should be well taken care of.
“They should not be neglected in old age, there should be an avenue where they can have free medical checkups in any hospital of their choice. If not for everything, but for key ailments like blood pressure and blood sugar level, because those are the two most dangerous ailments that kill people fast.
“Also, our health insurance should be properly upgraded to include all-inclusive, because now it is restricted to civil servants. So, with health insurance, the aged could be well taken care of,” he said.
Also, the administrative secretary of the foundation, Mr Abdulraqib Jegede, said that the foundation hopes to build a community for the elderly and ensure that the elderly people always receive basic medical attention when necessary.
