Public Agenda (Accra)
Ebenezer Hanson
1 September 2008
Accra — A sizeable percentage of the Ghanaians are reeling under the yoke of diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer, and many more have hastened to their graves from such diseases.
Although information exists on the causes and likely prevalence of these lifestyle diseases, this information, according to the People's National Convention (PNC), has not been harnessed to the benefit of the population.
The party puts the blame squarely on the non-existence of an active Medical Intelligence Unit (MIU), which it promises to establish as part of its health policy if voted into office in December 2008. "If there had been an active Medical Intelligence Unit (MIU), Ghana might have avoided or drastically reduced the subsequent and continuing adverse effects of these diseases on our population, " declares the party in its 2008 Manifesto.
An MIU tracks and assesses the full range of global health issues for a country. Under the PNC, according to the manifesto, the MIU will serve as a Think Thank that would sift through available information from national and international sources and select relevant recommendations for Ghana. The PNC promises the information "will be used in widespread publicity; reorganization of current medical practices and its inclusion in future plans for health delivery in the nation."
The United States government also operates a National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI), formerly the Armed Forces Medical Intelligence Center (AFMIC), based in Fort Detrick, Maryland. It is an agency within the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and for that matter the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA); its mission is to track and assess the full range of global health issues for the DoD.
NCMI's mission, always critical to protecting the health of deployed forces, has grown even more important recently with support to Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom and the global war on terrorism. At the same time, the center is increasing its use of new technologies to transform its delivery of timely, forward-leaning, customer-focused medical intelligence.
In harmony with the policy of ensuring that the citizenry gets easy and ready access to healthcare, the PNC also promises to introduce mobile clinics on wheels and by boat on the Volta Lake to serve the rural communities at points where services the services are needed most.
The mobile clinics would consist of fully equipped vans and boats, each manned by a doctor and a nurse who will be able to carry out the full duties of a general medical practitioner and when the need arises they will be used for specific immunization programmes says the manifesto.
The PNC also recognizes that traditional medicine is important and will remain so for a long time. The party says it will support the current efforts of the World Health Organization (WHO) to put the practice of traditional medicine on a more scientific basis.
"In this regard, the work being done at the Centre for Scientific Research into plant medicine and our universities and other research facilities shall be given all the necessary material backing. [And] efforts shall be made to bring about greater co-operation between traditional and non-traditional practitioners," the party assures.
On its part, the Convention People's Party (CPP) believes that "a healthy people make a wealthy nation. Fewer illnesses mean less absenteeism, higher productivity and an increase in national wealth." It raises concerns about the inability of the existing infrastructure to meet the increase demand created by the introduction of the National Health Insurance Scheme, and attributes some of the hydra headed problems in the health sector to the "inequitable distribution of health personnel".
To address these challenges, the CPP proposes in its manifesto to employ a multi-sectoral scheme, comprising the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Food and Agriculture (for nutrition), Ministry of Sports (for fitness) and Ministry of Local Government( for sanitation), among others.
Among the specific policies the party will embark on include the decentralization of the management of health services to the districts, and the production and enforcement of a comprehensive Public Health Law that will improve environmental sanitation, including sanitary inspectors.
It also promises to establish health desks at key ministries such as the Food and Agriculture, Education and Water Resources for "promotive, preventive and curative services". Similarly, it will introduce and publicize a Patient's Bill of Rights.
The CPP shall also "crack down on corrupt practices, especially in procurement, in the health sector that deprive the State of millions of Ghana cedis every year".
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