By Chioma Umeha
Lagos
To ensure safety of drivers and commuters, Lagos state
through its Ministry of Health took its routine free medical screening to the
Ikeja main garage motor park, Obafemi Awolowo Way, Lagos.
Over 200 commercial vehicle drivers were screened under the
medical mission tagged: “Motor Park Health And Safety Programme,” which was
organised by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Ministry of
Transportation.
According to the officer in-charge of the mission, Dr Dolapo
Fasawe, the outreach is to take the state’s free health programme closer to
every Lagos resident.
Fasawe said: “Urine test, breath analysis, eye screening and
others are being provided free of charge for all the participants.”
Dr Tolu Ajomale of the Special Project Unit of the ministry
said the programme would address the drivers’ healthcare needs.
Ajomale said: “It is specifically called healthcare
programme and safety for commercial drivers in Lagos. It is meant to ensure
these drivers are in sound health because they carry a large number of
commuters in the state to and from work, from one point to the other.
He also said: “What we do is talk to the commercial
transporters to create more awareness about the Lagos Traffic Rule or Traffic
Laws. We also reorient and give them more information on things that are
currently going on in Lagos State in terms of public transportation, by so
doing we are able to impact on the lives of the drivers, reduce the incidence
of road traffic accidents which will also create more safety for the lives of
the passengers.”
Following the interaction with the commercial drivers,
Ajomale noted that drivers has great expectation from the state government.
“Their engagement has shown that they have a sense of
benefiting from the government of the day. Free drugs, eye glasses and referral
are some of the things they enjoyed,” he said.
Collaborating, Modupe Ore Macaulay, who works with Human
Capacity Development Department, Lagos State Traffic Management Authority
(LASTMA), said the target of the programme is to guarantee the safety of
drivers and commuters.
Macaulay said: “The ministry of health is collaborating with
us to organise this programme for drivers. It is really focused on the safety
of the drivers because the moment the driver is sane, the commuters’ safety is
guaranteed. The State government magnanimity in providing the programme is
informed by its discovery that most of the commercial drivers don’t have time
to go for checkups; they don’t even have the time to leave their buses or BRT
to go to the hospital for regular checkups. That is why the government decided
to bring the free health care closer to them.
He added: “So as you could see there are doctors, opticians
attached to everybody around, there are two things we are doing. One is
drivers’ enlightenment from the quality education department. The next is the
alcohol breath testing using the breathalyser.
The breathalyser is a device for estimating blood alcohol
content (BAC) from a breath sample of the driver’s system.
Since the State government started this programme five years
ago,we have been able to reduced the accident rates as it relate to alcohol
intakes, reduced abnormality in the flow of traffic due to ill-health. Many of
the drivers whose issues are very technical are given referral to go to general
hospital and as long as their referral is from this programme, their treatment
is sponsored by the state government, and so far so good it has been very
positive.
Many of the commercial drivers commended the programme,
especially this year’s programme, saying, it affords them free treatment and
medications unlike in previous years.
For instance, a driver, Johnson Ayodeji, one of the
beneficiaries who was full of praises for this year’s programme, said: “There
is an improvement as we did not receive free test, but we received free drugs,
even eyeglasses. This is unlike the past where they simply refer you to a
hospital if you had complications.”
