DR AFOKO, A UROLOGIST COMMITTED TO THE NORTH

 (Daily Graphic, Oct 21, 2011, page 23)

EVERY year, the headlines of national dailies read: “Doctors refuse postings to the north.” And the excuse that is repeatedly given by these professionals is that the north is under-developed.

However, for Dr Akis Afoko, a physician-trained urologist, it is rather in deprived communities that the services of doctors are more crucial.

This explains why he accepted to work in the north and has since then remained committed to rendering his services to a population of about 4 million.

Dr Afoko joined the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) in… and by so doing, became the first and only urologist to have accepted to serve in a hospital in northern Ghana.

Although, many people know very little about urologists, their relevance in the medical field is so crucial.

According to Wikipedia, the free internet encyclopaedia, urologists are physicians who have specialised in diagnosing, treating and managing patients with urological disorders.

These disorders, it notes, comprise medical conditions that affect the penis, kidneys, prostrate, adrenal glands, urinary bladder, urethra and testes, among others.

Wikipedia further notes that urology is one of the most competitive specialties in the medical field and the world can boast of only a limited number of them.

One can therefore understand why in 2005, the tragic death of three surgical urologists in Ghana was likened to a national disaster.

The TTH would therefore be considering itself lucky to have a urologist in its fold.

Apart from being a consultant urologist at the TTH, Dr Afoko also works as a senior lecturer at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) at the University for Development Studies (UDS).

In an interview with Dr Afoko, he described his work in the north as a calling from God.

“Each day, I see over 70 patients at the Out Patients Department (OPD),” he revealed.

In spite of the large numbers of patients requiring surgery, Dr Afoko is only able to do about four surgeries a week and he blames this situation on the lack of modern equipment.

“I can do a minimum of 35 surgeries in a week if there is a spacious theatre and modern equipment,” he said, adding that with modern equipment surgical operations become simpler and faster and the patient’s recovery is enhanced.

“Using the outdated gadgets and methods currently available in Ghana, I would use about three hours for a single surgery, depending on the condition, and the patient would need about 14 days to recover.

“With an Endoscopic machine, treatment takes less than 20 minutes and the patient is discharged the same day,” Dr Afoko explained.

As the interaction with Dr Afoko progressed, middle-aged young men pushed their octogenarian father on a wheelchair into the consulting room.

The old man, who looked as pale as death, had a urinary catheter inserted into him, and due to his situation, the doctor could not do otherwise than to pause the conservation and attend to the old man.

When the conservation resumed, Dr Afoko said he still remains resolved to stay and serve the north, in spite of the problems he faces daily.

“If I leave, it would be terrible for the people here because when again would another urologists come to the north. Even my conscience would bother me,” he stated.

In actual fact, Dr Afoko does not only remain committed to serving the north, but is determined to work towards improving the practice of urology in the north.

I grinned with delight when he hinted of plans that he and a Dutch urologists, Dr Hans de-Wall, were making for the establishment of a medical centre at the TTH to provide modern urological services to people in Northern Ghana and beyond.

Dr de-Wall operates a urological hospital in Offinso in the Ashanti Region, which he established through the Ananse Foundation in partnership with the Ghana Health Service.

Together, the two have conducted endoscopic surgeries on patients at the TTH on a number of occasions.

The proposed TTH urological centre, as Dr Afoko explained, would be a centre of excellence which would take care of urological and pelvic floor disorders.

These conditions, he noted, were being ignored and yet many people in the north and elsewhere were leaving with such conditions.

According to Dr Afoko, his desire to establish the centre in the north, and not anywhere else, was due to his conviction that treatment must be nearer to those who need it most.

He said he had realised over his few years of practice in the north that many children die or suffer from conditions like posterior urethral valve, because of poor diagnoses and lack of quality healthcare.

He also identified obstetric fistula and prolapsed uterus us two of the many urological conditions that women in the north were suffering from.

“I have been very saddened by the number of cases of fistula in the north,” Dr Afoko stated, adding that fistula is as an example of a severe form of pelvic disorder.

Dr Afoko believes that training more urologists locally is one of the key strategies to increasing the number of urologists in the country and he believes the centre would be able to achieve that.

With the desire to serve being demonstrated, evidently, by Dr Afoko, one can only pray and hope that he receives the needed support, particularly from health authorities and the political leadership.