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| Some of the residents waiting to receive drugs |
THE Tamale
Teaching Hospital (TTH) is to intensify its efforts to take healthcare delivery
to the doorsteps of communities in the Tamale metropolis and other parts of the
Northern Region.
With the aid of its two mobile clinics,
the TTH kicked off this initiative on Tuesday, when the mobile clinics made a
stop at the Sagnarigu community, a suburb of Tamale.
A large number of people in and around
Sagnarigu, many of whom were women and children, headed to the forecourt of the
Sagnarigu Chief Palace, where the mobile clinics were stationed.
A urological specialist, Dr Akis Afoko
with a complement of nurses, radiologists, pharmacists, laboratory technicians,
bio-statistics and administrators, among others, attended to the anxious crowd,
some of whom appeared very ailing.
Mariama Abdulai, 55, came with her
19-year old son, Iddrisu Abdulai, who had been complaining of feverishness over
the past three days and had become pale and weak.
“His health insurance had expired and we
did not have money to renew it, but the people have examined him and given him
drugs,” she told the Daily Graphic in
an interview.
“Many of them came with cases of
malaria, skin diseases, hypertension, asthma and other conditions,” Dr Afoko stated,
whilst busily attending to the patients.
“The mobile clinic is stocked with drugs
for most of these conditions and so we are providing the patients with these
drugs,” he further noted.
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| Dr Afoko (second left) and Dr Savani attending to some patients |
“When such patients come to the hospital
we assist them in seeing the particular physician and doing the necessary
checks otherwise they would have to go through the usual procedure which may
take longer,” he explained.
The Hyundai mobile clinics were donated
to the Ministry of Health (MOH) earlier this year by the Korea Foundation for
International Healthcare (KOFIH) and were presented to the TTH to implement its
medical outreach programme in various communities in the region.
They are equipped with a number of
facilities that include digital x’ray, digital ultrasound, E.C.G, laboratory,
pharmacy and body mass index machine.
It also has tools and space for minor
surgeries and for checking vision and hearing of patients.
“For a long time the hospital’s
management had been considering embarking on the medical outreach, but the lack
of the needed tools was a major stumbling block. Luckily for us, the Ministry
of Health decided to present the two mobile clinics to us to enable us
actualise our plans,” Dr Afoko mentioned.
He hinted that with the aid of the mobile
clinics, the TTH would soon commence outreach in some remote communities
outside Tamale in order to make its impact felt in those areas.
“The CEO, Dr Sagoe wants us to spend
more time in villages outside Tamale, because it is the people in these
communities who face more difficulties in accessing healthcare.
“Our problem however is funding. The
hospital is maintaining the two mobile clinics at a cost and we need additional
funding to enable make visits to the villages,” he noted.
The President of the Italian health non-governmental
organisation – Everywhere – Dr Pietro Sergio Savani also joined the TTH team to
offer his support to the outreach programme.
“I have been discussing with Dr Afoko
about the need to do more of these outreach programmes. My experience in
medical outreach in West Africa had proven that delivering healthcare on wheels
is the best approach to reach disadvantaged communities,” he stated.
Last week, Dr Savani’s organisation
donated a Hyundai 7-seater 4X4 vehicle to the TTH to support its outreach
programme.
By this gesture, Dr Savani demonstrated
his organisation’s commitment to what he termed “delivering healthcare to rural
communities on wheels.”
He said he was in discussions with the
MOH to establish some partnership that would allow medical professionals in
Italy to visit Ghana for medical exchanges, especially in skills transfer.
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