The Minister of Health, Dr. George Sipa-Adjah Yankey, has disclosed that the government spends over $760 million annually on malaria treatments alone.

He regretted that despite this huge expenditure people, still die of the disease. He was speaking at the opening of the 74th Annual Conference of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana (PSG), which coincided with the 10th Commonwealth Pharmacists Association (CPA) Conference, which is currently underway in Accra.

According to him, "It is social justice if we strive to relieve the poor of over 35% of their income, which would otherwise be spent on malaria treatment. And it is morally right if we work to save those children who lose the battle with malaria every minute."

Dr. Yankey, therefore, called on the members of the PSG, to partner government in the fight against malaria other diseases in the country, saying the government would count on them, as members of a trusted profession, to help communicate messages that would allow the public understand their role in managing the malaria crisis in Ghana.

On efforts to fight malaria in the West African sub-region, the Minister revealed that he was collaborating with his colleague ministers of Health in Nigeria, Cote d'Ivoire and others in the West African Sub-region, to rid the whole sub-region of malaria.

Dr. George advocated the role of the pharmacists in the area of disease surveillance, adding that with the increased use of information and communication technology, the link between health events and the use of drugs, would become an important indicator for disease surveillance in the country.

Indeed, "every patient we serve is a potential source of data, and this makes all drug outlets valuable sources of information. Unfortunately, this is a resource we have not been able to tap fully. We need, as a matter of urgency, to put in place a system that will enable such information to be systematically captured and fed into policy," he urged.

Dr. George disclosed that the Ministry of Health was currently looking at the most effective way of engaging all health service providers at the district level, and to make them part of the District Health System, and called on pharmacists to be more active in the activities of the district health management team in their various areas.

In his welcome address, the President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, Dr. Alex Dodoo, pledged that the PSG would fully support the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), and would also provide technical, professional and administrative assistance to ensure the sustainability of the scheme.

He, however, noted that the PSG was unhappy with the lack of clear separation between the prescribing and dispensing functions within the scheme.

Dr. Dodoo argued that there was incontrovertible evidence globally, that where the same individual provides prescribing and dispensing services within any health insurance scheme, there is over-prescribing of medicines.

For several reasons, dispensing doctors cost insurance schemes much more than non-dispensing doctors.

Anecdotally, the PSG has information to suggest a heavy utilisation of medicines under the NHIS, a situation that could threaten the immediate financial viability and long term sustainability of the scheme.

The President of the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP), Professor Kamal Midha, urged members of the PSG to collaborate with government to help fight counterfeit medicines in the country.

He appealed to pharmacists in Ghana to provide quality services and other useful information on medicines to patients.

The Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana used the occasion to confer fellowships on Messrs Frank Amoako Boateng, Thomas Appiah Agyei and Professor Kamal Midha, for their contributions to the pharmaceutical profession in Ghana, and the world at large.