First directory on doctors out (Spread)

THE Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has launched the first Doctors’ Directory which contains vital information on almost 2,000 doctors throughout the country.
The initiative, which is a collaboration between the GMA and Vodafone Ghana, comes with the names of the doctors, their speciality, places of work and their Vodafone numbers for easy reach by their colleagues in times of need for specialised information on healthcare delivery.
Launching the project, the President of the GMA, Dr Emmanuel Adom Winful, said the 24-page directory would help improve healthcare delivery through the sharing of ideas among doctors by the use of free Vodafone services.
He said with the launch, the GMA had succeeded in implementing two out of the four pillars of an agreement reached between the two institutions and mentioned the pillars as free Dr-to-Dr call, free-to-Dr SMS, bulk messaging and the Doctor Directory which was launched.
Dr Adom Winful explained that the directory would afford doctors the opportunity to contact other colleagues in specialised areas for advice and referrals when they were confronted with challenges in their operations, especially those outside the big hospitals.
For his part, Mr Isaac Abraham, the Manager of Corporate Communications at Vodafone, said the organisation was aware of the important role the health sector played in the country’s economy and was, therefore, prepared to assist in that direction.
He indicated that the initiative was part of Vodafone Ghana’s corporate responsibility programme, for which reason it would ensure its sustenance to better the health needs of Ghanaians.
At the ceremony, the GMA took the opportunity to reiterate its call on the National Service Secretariat to have discussions with the association on the issue of national service for doctors, since there was already a system structured in a way to benefit Ghanaians in the area of health care.
Addressing the media, Dr Adom Winful pointed out that the GMA was not averse to the concept of its members serving the nation, adding, “Indeed, we do it every day.”
He said the association, however, found it improper that the announcement of such a major consideration should be heard by the major partners for the first time in the Ghanaian media and stated that consultation on that new policy had been poor or non-existent.