Oyo approves establishment of Special Healthcare Center for the Elderly

Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has approved the establishment of a modern healthcare center for the elderly in the State. This is to complement the present administration’s efforts at providing healthcare to the people from pregnancy to the old age stage.

The Commissioner for Health, Dr Bashir Bello, stated this on Thursday, in Ibadan, while answering questions from newsmen on the success of the present administration in the health sector within its first two years.

Bello hinted that the Geriatric Center, with the focus to promote the health of the elderly by preventing and treating diseases and disabilities, would commence operation by August 2021, as medical professionals like nutritionists and consultants, among other medical practitioners, have been trained in readiness for the operation of the center.

He said the legal backing for the establishment of the center is currently being fine-tuned by the State Ministry of Justice for onward movement to the State House of Assembly, while renovation work was already ongoing at the center at Jericho in Ibadan.

Bello stated: “So we are having the support of almost all arms, including especially the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources for installation of alternative power facilities in our health institutions, especially the PHCs and this new Geriatric Center at Jericho in Ibadan.

“The center is like the Nursing Home in the United State of America, we want our elderly, who might be retired administrators, businessmen or women or of whatever status in the society, to come there in the morning, get medical attention, recreate among themselves and towards evening, their families will come and take them home. This will add more to their happiness and they will not just be aging, but be aging well,” he explained.

Presently, only the University College Hospital (UCH) has a Geriatric facility in Oyo State, as donated by Chief Tony Anenih and Sir Kesington Adebutu, which care for the elderly patients of the federal institution, but the State Geriatric Center, according to the State Commissioner for Health, would care for all elderly people, without recourse to social status or financial influence.

Emmanuel Ukoh