By Tayo Joseph Lagos, Nigeria
No less than 25 doctors from Yobe state offered free medical and
healthcare services to returning residents of Buni/Yadi community, as
its hospital and healthcare centres were destroyed by Boko Haram
insurgents in 2014.
The mobilizations of doctors were made by three Non-Governmental
Organizations, which include Mai Goje Foundation, Smile Mission and
Edushine to implement the Saturday, Community Healthcare Outreach
(CHOR) to returning displaced persons.
Dr. Mohammed Goje, Chairman of Foundation, said that the doctors came
from various places including Kano, Abuja, Lagos, Maiduguri and
Damaturu, the state capital to provide services to liberated
communities in the state.
His words: “The decision to mobilize the medical team to this
community; was borne out of the fact that there is no single
functional medical facility in the area; since the Boko Haram
destruction of General Hospital, Buni-Yadi.”
He said that the free medical outreach; has targeted 300 residents for
treatment but over 1,000 people with various ailments; however turnout
for the “free medical and healthcare services.”
Dr. Saleh Abba, who led the medical team said that specialists
including gynecologists, pediatricians, dentists, Ear, Nose and Throat
(ENT) and others attended to patients, who had returned, after the
community was liberated by the military in 2016.
His words: “We also carried out minor surgery operations,
consultations and other services ably assisted by pharmacists, nurses
and laboratory scientists.
“The outreach is offering the service for just one day which
unfortunately is grossly inadequate considering the large number of
patients in this town.”
Ali Usman, who benefited from the free medical outreach, urged the
Federal and State Governments to provide the community with a
temporary medical facility, before the destroyed hospital and other
health centres are rebuilt.
“Two years after our return to this liberated Buni/Yadi community, we
have no medical facility, as they were destroyed in the three-year
insurgency. Some of our women died from avoidable circumstances in
child birth because, we have to travel to Damaturu, to access
hospital,” he lamented.
He also appealed to the State Government to introduce temporary and
mobile clinics to provide medical services to the returning displaced
persons.
