The Nigeria Medical Association, NMA, Kwara State chapter on Thursday advised professional Doctors to always go for a regular medical check-up to ascertain the true status of their health.
Dr Abdulkadir Ahmed, the state chairman of NMA, gave this advice while speaking with Journalists on the sideline of this year’s physician week, held at the state secretariat of the association, located at G.R.A, Ilorin
Dr Ahmed said “Today mark the first day of two days of medical screening for our members, most of us are always busy in our clinic trying to save lives and in the course of that we hardly remember to check ourselves to see how healthy we are, so we felt as an association, after the welfare of our members, which is the paramount agenda of this administration, we also believe it is very important to look after ourselves by making sure our members are healthy and fit to do their job and be able to take care of their family too.
“Thursday and Friday are dedicated to the screening of the members on some of the common ailments, while young Doctors will be hosted at the secretariat on Saturday where doyens will talk to them about the profession and life generally”
Also speaking the Vice chairman of the association, Dr Abdulbaki Mariam, “As we all know, there is a lot of brain drain going on in the country, Doctors are being overworked, and they hardly have time for themselves, we have recorded a few death among Doctors due to treatable and preventable disease.
“So we decided that this year let us do a screening test for all Doctors in Kwara state, for us to know our health status.
“As a result of this test, some Doctors for the first time discovered that they have elevated blood glucose level, and some find out that their blood pressure is high.
“You would be surprised that when you ask a doctor when was the last time they check their blood pressure, they would tell you they can not even remember. We are happy that we incorporated health fitness checks in our activities this year.
“We are hoping that by next year when we get more funds we will decentralize it by taking it to rural areas“
