Lagos State Government says more than 400 people will benefit from its new phase of the state sponsored Free Limb Deformity Corrective Surgery and Rehabilitative Programme.
The programme is an intervention targeted at rehabilitating people, especially children, with lower limb deformities such as rickets or Blount disease, and other lower limb deformities that affect their normal growth and function.
The Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr Olusegun Ogboye, made this known during his visit to the screening site for the latest batch of beneficiaries at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital.
Ogboye said that the current phase of the exercise had recorded over 400 potential beneficiaries, who would be screened over a period of two days, while appropriate medical examinations were conducted.
He said that during the current phase, 80 children would benefit from corrective surgical intervention, just as others would be offered physiotherapy, nutrition and health education, as well as assistive mobility devices that would improve their health.
Ogboye said that the results of their examination would be reviewed by a team of specialists and those that qualified for surgery would be booked for surgical intervention within the next 10 days.
According to him, the process will be at no cost to the patients.
”The process involves a screening where surgeons examine patients and select those eligible to benefit from surgery and others that may benefit from assistive devices and other forms of physical rehabilitation.
”Those who pre-qualify for surgery will then go through a series of diagnostic investigations, including x-rays and blood tests to check for the form of the bone malformation, calcium levels and other basic parameters.
”Patients are then offered surgery and kept overnight for observation. This is supervised by our team of orthopaedic surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses and other health professionals.
”After discharge, patients will come for follow-up visits at the clinic, and then also go through physiotherapy to ensure we get the best outcomes,” he said.
Ogboye said that many of the limb deformities, which could be corrected by surgery and rehabilitation, would improve the health status of the beneficiaries and give a greater sense of self-worth.
He also said that the patients would have better chances for economic empowerment and financial independence.
”This programme often leads to improved mobility and health outcomes for the beneficiaries, and allows us to demonstrate our commitment as a state, to develop our human capital and give our children a good platform to achieve their dreams and aspirations.
”The programme also allows us to generate data to create other targeted disability intervention strategies to help more people that may have been disadvantaged healthwise in one way or another,” the permanent secretary said.
Speaking in the same vein, the Coordinator of the Programme, Dr Tolulope Ajomale, said that over 6,000 patients had benefitted from the programme since inception,.
Ajomale said that the programme had evolved into a multidisciplinary surgical outreach programme that explored surgical intervention, physiotherapy and assistive mobility devices to improve their health.
He said that the programme, usually held biannually, was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that the surgical and rehabilitative intervention programme had been rejigged to ameliorate the suffering of patients and their families.
Ajomale said that the massive turnout of potential beneficiaries at the screening exercise was an affirmation of the impact the programme had on citizens who had benefitted from the programme.
According to him, another screening exercise will be organised before the end of the year to expand the window for more potential beneficiaries. (NAN)