A member representing Surulere Constituency I in the Lagos House of Assembly, Desmond Elliott, has partnered with the Association of Resident Doctors (ARD), Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) to carry out free surgical operations for 100 patients in his constituency.
The lawmaker restated his promise to attend to the health needs of his constituents at the two-day medical outreach tagged, ‘Free Medical and Surgery Outreach for Surulere Constituency I,’ organised to commemorate his birthday.
He said the event held on Friday and Saturday was aimed at alleviating the suffering of his constituents, adding that the intervention would address varying degrees of ailment including surgeries for patients with fibroid, hernia, prostate and lump in the breast.
According to the lawmaker the team of medical practitioners had attended to close to 100 patients. He described members of the ARD-LUTH as being amazing in the provision of man power for the exercise.
He said average cost of the surgery per patient was between N500,000 and N1m, adding that a particular case cost about N1.2m.
He said, “Today (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday) will be for screenings for prostate, hepatitis A, B, and C, eye defects, diabetes, hypertension, blood pressure and others. We are giving out over 2000 glasses.
“We need to beef up health insurance scheme to cover a lot of health issues. We need to make it robust to deal with more serious health challenges.”
Dr Adebayo Awoniyi, the former Vice Chairman, ARD-LUTH who led the team of the resident doctors, said members of the association felt there was the need to help the poor.
