Ghana Health Service designates officers to assist PWDs who visit health facilities

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has designated officers at the various regional and district hospitals across the country to assist persons living with disability (PWDs) who seek care in the health facilities.

These health officers would assist the PWDs right from the outpatient’s department, through consultation, to the pharmacy, and accounts, and avoid being in long queues until they leave the facility as part of measures to enhance inclusive healthcare delivery.

Professor Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, the Acting Director-General, GHS, said this when he met with the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations, and different groups of PWDs to deliberate on how the Service could collaborate with them to make health services at the various levels accessible.

“Some of these officers might be able to understand sign language, and as such, they will be able to interpret for persons with hearing impairment,” he said.

“One of the important things is not just to help them to go by the queue, but to help them till they leave the hospital, whether they go to the pharmacy, on admission, right till when they are discharged, they will be supported.”

Prof Akoriyea said regional directors of health services had been tasked to, with immediate effect, start implementing the directive, adding that a team would also be stationed at the GHS headquarters to serve the same purpose.

“This is a programme not a project, and I hope that whoever comes after me will take it up as well,” he said.

“We don’t want these things to be like a project, which has a beginning and an end. Disability is not inability, and the disabled people are Ghanaians; they were born by us, and they are family members, so we can’t say we are doing a project, and then after that, it collapses.”

He said the Service, in collaboration with the Korea Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH), would soon launch another project for children with disability to ensure that no one was left behind.

Prof Akoriyea said as part of the programme, the Health Promotion Department of the GHS would be tasked to advocate against stigmatising PWDs and ensure that perpetrators were dealt with.

Mr Alexander Bankole Williams, the Technical Coordinating Officer in charge of Legal Affairs, Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations, commending the Director General of the GHS for the initiative, urged him to ensure that whoever was assigned to render the service was well capacitated to provide the needed assistance effectively.

He called for the training of healthcare professionals to know how to critically handle PWDs, and how to dispense their medications.

Mr Williams said it was time the GHS, under the programme, ensured that medications were labeled with some accessible features such as brail to facilitate reading by PWDs and medical equipment imported, such as adjustable hospital beds, were easily accessible.

The group also called for enhanced communication for people with hearing impairment, as well as employment for PWDs.

Mr Joseph Atsu Homadzi, the President of the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations, appreciated the Director General for the initiative and suggested that the challenges outlined were classified as long-term and short-term and prioritised within the next few years to improve the well-being of PWDs.

Mr Yang Bomin, the Country Representative, KOFIH, outlined some of the projects his office was embarking on in the country.

He also spoke of the new project, which would soon be launched to provide addictive devices for children with disability.

Participants, after the meeting, toured the National Prosthetics and Orthotics Centre of the Ghana Health Service to monitor ongoing works and know what to do best to improve it.

Source: GNA

The post Ghana Health Service designates officers to assist PWDs who visit health facilities appeared first on Ghana Business News.

Read Full Story