Fashola Seeks Lifestyle Changes, Habits That Promote Good Health

Health By The Guardian Newspaper

Fashola LAGOS State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has urged Lagosians to embrace lifestyle changes and habits that promote good health, saying such changes would increase their wellbeing and reduce the need to visit hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

Fielding questions from Government House correspondents after a visit to the Isheri-Ikosi Local Council Development Area Secretariat to witness the on-going Statewide Free Hypertension/Diabetes Screening and Awareness Programme, Fashola said good health habits and lifestyles form the major plank on which the state’s Preventive Healthcare System is built.

“Changes in health patterns and behaviour will help prolong life. They form the fulcrum of preventive healthcare system,” he said, adding that the on-going programme is part of the commitment of his administration to strengthen the primary healthcare delivery system in the state.

Noting that the exercise is going on simultaneously in all the local government and local council development areas of the state, he described it as a wholesome healthcare delivery package where, aside testing people for hypertension and diabetes, immunizing children and running ante-natal clinics, drugs are dispensed to patients where necessary.

He praised health officers and other stakeholders responsible for running the programme, saying it is the foundational healthcare and the heart of preventive medicine which, according to him, “is our objective and our commitment to help prolong the life of our people.”

Earlier, while conducting the governor round at the exercise venue, Special Adviser on Public Health, Dr. Yewande Adeshina, revealed that over 40, 000 people have been screened throughout the state since the exercise began.

She told the governor that the process starts from registration by those who want to be screened where their correct data are taken, adding that after registration, they go to the screening section where a team of doctors screens them for hypertension and diabetes.