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By Doris Obinna
Some stakeholders in the healthcare sector have called for policy-driven interventions targeted at the elderly to improve their quality of life and health status. They made the call during Gerocare Fifth Anniversary on Friday in Lagos.
The co-founder, Gerocare Solutions Ltd, Dr. Ajibola Meraiyebu, disclosed that the country’s healthcare system had neglected the elderly in policies and programmes that could enhance their health. He said that even the health insurance ended or stopped at a certain age and which thereafter these elderly ones were left at their own mercy.
“I’m not saying this because of Gerocare, but the fact is that we will all age and when we get to that age, we will wonder why we didn’t have strong policies to address this gap.
“The National Health Insurance Act (NHIA) is working on evolving policies and plans that will target the elderly, however, this is expensive.
“It is expensive because it is curative and that’s why Gerocare preaches preventive care to detect threats to health early and take care of it,” he said.
He noted that maternal, child and adolescent health had taken the centre stage in many health interventions, adding that it was time to include the elderly in alignment with SDG-3 which advocated good health for all ages.
Meraiyebu also advised the government to embrace the use of technology, noting that using it would allow it to reach more people.
He added that in the last five years, the company serviced no fewer than 29,000 people through its homecare service and no fewer than 115, 000 elderly persons through its various outreach programmes.
Also, co-Founder, Gerocare Dr Ebi Ofrey, said the company provides an affordable and easily accessible means for the elderly to receive regular home visits by a medical doctor in any city in Nigeria.
Ofrey noted that this was done to assist the elderly to maintain a healthy state, prevent health deteriorations as they grow older and improve their quality of life. “Promoting preventive healthcare was critical to treating 80 per cent of health-related cases,” he stressed.
Similarly, the Chairman of Onigbongbo Local Council Development Area, Mr. Oladotun Olakanle commended Gerocare for its strides in improving the health of the elderly.
Olakanle said that the company through its health outreach programmes had impacted and improved the health of 150 elderly persons in his council.
Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Civic Engagement, Princess Aderemi Adebowale, restated the government’s commitment to improving the care of the elderly in the state.
Adebowale, represented by Director of Admin and Human Resources, Office of Civic Engagement, Mrs. Olaide Ibrahim, said that health promotion and improvement remained a priority of the state government.
