Hb Meters for the Market (Page 47)

Story: Lucy Adoma Yeboah (February 18, 2008)

MANGEL Klicks Company Limited, a Ghanaian company which supplies pharmaceuticals, medical and laboratory materials, has brought into the country a number of portable haemoglobin testing meters to speed up the testing of haemoglobin levels.
Known as STAT-Site Hgb meter, the tool, which is battery operated and fits in the palm of an adult, has the capacity to operate for five years without maintenance.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Mangel Klicks Company Limited, Mr Charles Kwamena Ackon, said the purpose of importing the meters was to help individuals and health care facilities to test haemoglobin level quickly without any difficulty.
Mr Ackon said testing with the meter was quick and easy and also reduced personnel training, adding that it was meant for improved performance and with a a single drop of fingerstick blood, the STAT-Site Hgb meter provided precise haemoglobin analysis in seconds for early treatment of patients.
Mr Ackon said the meters had already been tested by officials of the Ministry of Health (MOH) who purchased 100 pieces for a start.
He explained that the meters were to reduce time and other resources used in testing haemoglobin levels in laboratories and stated that since they used no electric power, they were cheaper and also needed less time to operate.
“It is meant to reduce the long queues and longer times spent at laboratories to get ones haemoglobin level tested,” he stressed.
Mr Ackon pointed out that the meters needed no reagents but just a drop of blood on a test card for accurate testing.
He also explained that one meter was sold for GH¢350 with additional batteries in addition to 100 pieces test cards which were also selling at GH¢200.
He said the meters needed no special temperature condition, adding that they could function anywhere including rural areas and by anybody who needed to have his or her haemoglobin tested.
He explained that there was the need for people to know what went on in their blood, since “what happens to the human body is a reflection of what is in the blood”.
He said in addition to health facilities, other groups of people who needed to acquire the meters were security agents who usually worked outside their homes and got injured because of their exercises, ambulance services, pregnant women, children and sickle cell patients.
He said availability of the meters would enable them to do quick tests when the need arose without going through the cumbersome routine at laboratories.