30th April, 2014
Kazeem Ugbodaga
The Lagos State Government says 9,498 pupils in Lagos public primary schools have visual impairment or partial blindness after tests carried out 74,000 of them.
Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris disclosed this today at a Ministerial Press Briefing held at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre, Alausa in Ikeja, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.
“The School Eye Programme was scaled up to include training of two teachers in each of the 1,001 public primary schools in the state and installation of vision corridors in 180 primary school complexes and 501 schools were equipped with vision screening kits.
“The total number of pupils screened by the trained teachers was 73,694, out of which 9,498 had visual impairment. Follow up visit for the treatment of the pupils was carried out. 979 pupils were treated out of which 143 glasses were given,” he said.
Idris disclosed further that the Eye Care Services Development and Community Outreach interventions of the government which was designed to reduce the burden of preventable blindness in the state, led to 7,206 patients being screened at 41 different screening venues, out of which 4,396 patients were given glasses and 175 surgeries done.
The commissioner also disclosed that that government has shut down 28 substandard hospitals and 319 illegal pharmacies across the state for not meeting up with the standard set by the government. He said the pharmacies were not registered.
According to him, the Lagos Health Facility Monitoring and Accreditation Agency, HEFAMAA, in the last one year renewed the registration of 1,089 private health facilities and monitored 1,182 health facilities, of which 114 of these facilities were found wanting and served closure notices.
He said 28 hospitals were closed for various offences such as the use of auxiliary nurses, poor environment, among others in order to serve as deterrent to others.
He also disclosed that the Lagos State Ambulance Service, LASAMBUS, in the last one year received 5,654 calls from members of the public and attended to 4,447 patients of which 2,216 were victims of road traffic accidents and gunshot wounds.