The Vice-President, Mr Kwesi Amissah-Arthur, yesterday launched the second National Medical Outreach Services in Cape Coast in the Central Region, with the affirmation that the government would continue to invest in the health sector to safeguard the health of the people.
Christened “Onuadͻ,” which means ‘brotherly love’ in Akan, the event follows a similar launch of the mobile clinic by President John Mahama at the Sekondi Naval Base in the Western Region last week.
The services employed by the Ministry of Health are part of the means to bridge the gaps in the healthcare system. They are also to serve as an effective adjunct to traditional interventions which tend to be rather expensive.
Delivered under the National Medical Equipment Replacement Project by Belstar Development Corporation, mobile clinic vans come in four configurations comprising general medicine, ophthalmology, dentistry and audiology or hearing assessment to cater for general medical services in those areas.
Two units each of the four speciality clinic vans were acquired, bringing the total fleet to eight.
Speaking at the launch, Mr Amissah-Arthur said the government’s commitment to invest in the health sector was informed by the critical importance of health care in the human development index.
He stated that the government had, in the last five years, invested massively in health infrastructure and enumerated a number of projects currently at various stages of completion, including the new University of Ghana Teaching Hospital, the expansion of the Ridge Hospital and the new Military Hospital in Kumasi.
The Vice-President pointed out that the launch of the mobile clinics would run concurrently in parts of the Western and Central Regions and added that “from today, people in remote parts of the Central region will receive the same quality of services from specialists in ear, nose and throat”.
He explained that it was the intention of the government to expand the ‘Onuado’ Medical Outreach Service by augmenting the number of vehicles available, in view of the significance of alternative mobile health clinics provided in the healthcare system.
The Minister of Heath, Mr Alex Segbefia, in his remarks, said the citizenry, as a matter of right, were required to lead healthy lifestyles.
He underscored the need to ensure that communities were adequately protected against the threat of communicable and non-communicable diseases.
He noted that access to rural healthcare services encompassed several elements, including property acquisition and management, staffing, housing, adequate technology and other variables, adding that the intention to fully involve mobile clinics in Ghana’s healthcare system was to elevate and advance the capabilities of the existing specialist outreach programmes.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Central Regional Minister, Mr Aquinas Tawiah Quansah, described the launch of the mobile medical vans in the region as timely, in view of the fact that the region was ranked among the four poorest in the country.
The Paramount Chief of the Oguaa Traditional Area, Nana Kwesi Atta II, who chaired the function, urged the people of the region to avail themselves of the medical outreach service to keep healthy.
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