NGO Introduces Free Medicare For Elderly

A Non-Governmental Organisation, Justice, Development and Peace Commission (JDPC), an NGO, says it is introducing a free medical home service for all the elderly people in Anambra.

Director of the organisation in the state, Dr Edwin Udoye, said this in an interview on Tuesday in Onitsha said that the scheme was aimed at providing daily care and medical services to the elderly people in their homes across the state.

He said that the scheme had already received the blessings of the Most Rev. Valerian Okeke, the Catholic Archbishop of Onitsha as well as the board of directors of the organisation.

Udoye said that the scheme would target elderly people in sub-urban and rural communities above the age of 60.

He said that the scheme would reduce the burden of providing care to the elderly people by their relations.

The director urged community and local government-based hospitals as well as the families of the elderly people in the state to support the scheme so as to guarantee its success.

He said, “These services are in place in Germany. “And looking around in our place, we have a lot of old people; we have a lot of people who are terminally ill. “Taking the elderly people to the hospital everyday is cumbersome; and I thought it would be worthwhile if the Church could collaborate with the JDPC to provide home service care for these people.”

“We employ people that will be going to their homes; if the people need massage, they will do that, if  they needed to be washed, they will do that; if they needed their food to be cooked, they will cook for them, wash them, serve them food. “And it is not a free service, the employees will be paid. “And we want to give it a trial to know whether it will work,” he added.

According to him, one of the challenges is that we need ambulances that will take the elderly people who are seriously sick and could not be treated at home to the hospital.

“There, we need the help of the government or any other agency. We also need small vehicles, small cars that will take the workers to the villages to attend to such people. “And as I am seeing it, it will relief many families the burden of looking for taxi, looking for Okada. Taking a sick person in an Okada is already a problem,’’ he declared.

He said that the organisation would soon embark on advocacy to churches, council areas, towns, groups, villages and individuals to encourage people to key into the scheme.

“We are going to recruit qualified staff living in each council area, who would be given re-orientation on how to care for the elderly since they are unique set of people. “And we would open council offices that would oversee what the field staff are doing and also the field staff can reach the office for assistance and guidance, if need be. “It would be a community-centred operation both in terms of staff, hospital and the target beneficiaries,’’ he noted.