Efforts to Develop Herbal Practice (Spread)

Story: Lucy Adoma Yeboah
THE first batch of graduates in Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree in Herbal Medicine are to be attached to public and private health facilities in the country to help develop traditional herbal practice.
The graduates, who are 11 in number, pursued a four-year degree programme at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi and completed in 2005.
The graduates have also completed a two-year internship programme and are awaiting to be posted to institutions such as the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) and other health facilities.
This came to light when a delegation from Sierra Leone, led by that country’s Minister of Health and Sanitation, Dr Soccoh A. Kabia, who was on a working visit, met Ghana’s Minister of Health, Major Courage Quashigah (retd) in Accra yesterday.
The Sierra Leonean delegation, which is here to learn about some of Ghana’s health sector policies and programmes, included the Chief Medical Officer, Dr Arthur C. Williams, the Human Resource Manager, Dr Anthony Saneh and a Deputy Secretary at the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Mr Tommy T. Tergbeh.
Briefing the delegation, Major Quashigah said Ghana was prepared to support Sierra Leone in the area of expertise, since the Ghanaian situation was better than that of Sierra Leone.
He said the country had gone through numerous stages in its health delivery system, which included the stage where only the cities and big towns had health facilities, to the current situation where almost every community had one facility or another.
The Health Minister said the health sector had operated a Cash and Carry system and now it was promoting National Health Insurance and also the Regenerative Health and Nutrition Programme (RHNP), whereby people were educated to live healthy lives.
Major Quashigah said a lot had been achieved in the area of community health care, where basic health care was provided within eight-kilometre radius under the community-based health programme introduced by the Ghana Health Service (GHS).
For his part, Dr Kabia said the 10-year war in Sierra Leone had affected all sectors of the economy, which was forcing the country to begin all over again. He described the war period as “10 years of total waste for which the Sierra Leonean people are paying a price”.
He said Sierra Leone was ready to learn from Ghana to also move ahead in health care delivery.
According to Dr Kabia, in addition to lack of health professionals, there was also the shortage of general personnel in addition to lack of medical supplies.
The Director of Policy Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (PPME) of the MoH, Dr Edward Addai, advised the team to be wary of institutions which came to their aid and insisted on projects and programmes outside their local plans.
He said if that was not prevented, it would be difficult to get programmes which were high on the national agenda implemented, adding that the situation could also lead to double financing of some programmes, while other important ones remained unattended to.
Present at the meeting were the Deputy Director General of the GHS, Dr George Amofah, the Chief Director of the MoH, Alhaji M. N. D. Jawula, the Greater Accra Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Irene Agyepong, the Medical Director of the Ridge Hospital, Dr George Acquaye and the Director of Traditional and Alternative Medicine Directorate, Mr Peter Arhin.
As part of their visit, the delegation was scheduled to pay a visit to the Director General of the GHS, the Chief Executive of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) and also have a tour of the KBTH and the Ridge Hospital, both in Accra.
They would also tour the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi and interact with some health professionals in the Ashanti Region.