By Davies Iheamnachor

PORT HARCOURT— IMPOVERISHED senior citizens at the Home for the Elderly, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, have pleaded with the State Government, led by Governor Nyemson Wike, well-meaning individuals and organizations for support to cater for their failing health conditions.

The elderly persons made the call during a health outreach by the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, in the state, to commemorate the Rivers golden jubilee celebration.

Speaking on behalf of the beneficiaries, the matron of the Home, Reverend-Sister MaryJane Rafael Agwubosi, thanked the body for the intervention, saying the home lost two inmates, last week, to illness.

Reverend-Sister MaryJane Rafael Agwubosi,Matron of Home for the Elderly, Port Harcourt & Onuoha

2 died last week

Agwubosi said: “When we got the message that NMA is coming to see us, we were so happy, they have come at the time we need them most, we thank them for this gesture. Here, we have a lot of challenges, especially medical issues. Last week, we lost two of our people to sickness. When we sent them to the hospital, they died because attention was not given to them.”

“We need a lot of help, we need social workers and we need attention of the government and the public. Sometimes, we do not have money to pay workers, but we do not lack food here. We need help to get more workers and to be able to pay them.”

Living with many sicknesses

Similarly, one of the aged inmates, Elder Godfrey Onuoha, stated that the elderly people in the home were living with one form of sickness or the other, adding: “We thank God for this visit today, it is God’s intervention, all of us are down with sickness, and we need help.”

60 persons benefit from programme – NMA

Meanwhile, the chairman of NMA in the state, Dr. Dantoye Alasia, has stressed the need for good medical attention to be given to elderly people, disclosing that over 60 persons benefited from the programme.

“We planned this comprehensive medical outreach for the elderly people in this place to cover eye care, provision of drugs, cardiac and ECG, blood sugar test, malaria, and comprehensive heart evaluation. There is also a mental health evaluation station,” Alasia said.

The NMA chair added: “The society is changing and the care for the elderly is not what it used to be, people no more care for the elderly ones. It is a wakeup call to the fact that there is no limit to what people can do to save the situation of elderly people.”