Total commences free medical outreach for OML 58 communities

Port Harcourt — As part of its corporate social responsibility, Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, TEPNG, has begun a mass free health programme for its OML 58 host communities in Rivers State.

The free healthcare, according to the oil company, would last for two weeks, and is expected to handle diagnosis, treatment and drug dispensation on various areas, including paediatrics, ophthalmology, antenatal as well as surgeries.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the programme in Erema General Hospital in Erema, Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State, the Deputy Managing Director of Total, Port

Harcourt District, Mr. François LeCocq, said the programme was targeting to treat at least 5,000 patients.

Le-Cocq explained that it had become a culture for the oil company to continue to champion health-related issues through various programmes, since health was wealth.

He added that the firm had continuously extend the culture to its host and neighbouring communities through its numerous preventive and curative public health interventions, such as safe motherhood programme, healthy living awareness campaign, HIV awareness programme and capacity building for staff of primary health care centres.

“As a company, Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, we share in the universal saying that ‘a healthy people make a wealthy nation.’ This belief has propelled us to sustain the noble efforts of the Joint Venture to reach out to the critical needs of our people and support both preventive and curative health care delivery policies and programmes of government despite the challenging business environment.

“After two days of this programme, available statistics indicate that about 810 patients have so far been attended to. The breakdown of this figure indicates that 810 patients cases, including 300 paediatrics cases, 261 ophthalmological and two antenatal cases, have been handled,” he said.