Norman Dururu
Gweru-based private medical health facilities will offer free health services to the elderly this Thursday as part of the International Day of Older Persons commemorations.
Gioren Family Clinic and Cardio Dx Medical Centre will provide free medical consultations, examinations, and screenings to individuals aged 65 and above.
Supported by Biogene Laboratories and the Dementia Association of Zimbabwe, the initiative aims to give back to the community while honouring the late Dr Kudzanai Perseverance Guveya, who passed away in July and previously ran Gioren Family Clinic.
Dr Kundai Guveya, who runs both Cardio Dx Medical Centre and Gioren Family Clinic as medical director said the initiative would continue his late brother’s legacy of providing free medical services to older people.
“We are saying we need to give back to the community that has made us what we are today,” Dr Guveya said.
“My late brother, Dr Kudzanai Perseverance Guveya, used to run Gioren Family Clinic, where he offered free consultations and examinations to people aged 65 and above every Saturday.
“Now that he has passed on, we need to continue his legacy and thought it would be best to honour him on Thursday, which is International Day for Older Persons.”
Services to be offered include diabetes, eye, cancer, dementia and prostate screening, as well as free blood pressure checks and medical consultations.
Dr Guveya said Biogene Laboratories would provide laboratory services, including full blood counts and urea and electrolyte tests, particularly for people living with chronic conditions.
He said older people were at increased risk of conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, prostate cancer, and benign prostatic hyperplasia, while women also faced risks associated with breast cancer.
The Dementia Association of Zimbabwe will provide dementia screening, an area Dr Guveya said was often overlooked.
“Dementia is a silent killer in older people. They will come in to screen for dementia on the day,” he said.
He said dementia symptoms were sometimes wrongly attributed to witchcraft when older people began forgetting things, behaving unusually, or becoming violent.
“This is something which we can unmask and then go forward in terms of treatment or referring them to another facility,” he said.
Dr Guveya, who is also medical superintendent at St Patrick’s Mission Hospital, said they had reached out to communities in Chiundura and surrounding rural areas to encourage older people to attend.
He said they had enough doctors and nurses to attend to everyone, even if the turnout increased.
Association of Senior Citizens Community secretary for administration Jack Ngulube welcomed the initiative, saying many older people could not afford consultations and diagnostic tests.
“We applaud institutions that come up with such interventions as most of us cannot afford to pay for consultations, tests and screening,” he said.
Ngulube said about 25,000 of the association’s more than 100,000 members were aged 65 and above.
He said the free services would ease the financial burden on senior citizens, noting that some tests, such as PSA tests, can cost up to US$40.
