Vodafone offers free services to doctors (Graphic Business)

THE Ghana Medical Association (GMA), in collaboration with Vodafone Ghana, has come out with the first Doctors’ Directory which contains vital information on almost 2,000 doctors in Ghana.
The directory, which was launched in Accra contains the names of the doctors, their speciality, places of work and their Vodafone numbers to enable their colleagues get in touch for specialised information on healthcare delivery.
As part of the assistance, Vodafone Ghana has offered initial 1,500 free sim cards to the first batch of doctors to enable them access the services.
To ensure that the appropriate information is made available, there is a page in the directory that enables doctors whose names are not located in the directory or with other specific complaints about their addresses to report to the national secretariat of the association for the necessary corrections to be effected.
Such corrections or additions, according to the leadership of the association, will then duly be reflected in subsequent editions as the number of doctors are expected to increase with each graduating year.
At the launching ceremony which took place in Accra, the President of the GMA, Dr Emmanuel Adom Winful, pointed out that the directory would help improve healthcare delivery through the sharing of ideas among doctors by the use of free Vodafone services.
He said now that the GMA had come out with the directory which was in addition to the free Dr-to-Dr call supported by Vodafone Ghana, the association had succeeded in implementing two, out of the four pillars of an agreement reached between the two institutions and mentioned the remaining two pillars as free-to-Dr SMS and bulk messaging services yet to be implemented.
“It may be recalled that the original design was to have free doctor-doctor SMS service and a bulk messaging service that could be utilised to deliver bulk messages to all doctors announcing upcoming events, and also during emergencies when any number of doctors may have to be called to deliver essential services”, he explained.
He reiterated 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.
He said the possibilities for collaboration with an initiative of that nature were numerous and exciting adding that with their partners from Africa Aid, preliminary discussions had been held with the Medical and Dental Council (MDC) as well as officials of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to determine how a solid and a reliable data base of all doctors could be generated.
The GMA president said, to maximise its effect therefore, it might be worth looking at spreading the service to other health workers, particularly nurses.
Additionally, there has been consideration to create a platform where policies and programmes of the Ministry of Health (MoH), could be regularly communicated to doctors while feedback on the realities associated with the implementation of same could be received from front-line workers.
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.
When contacted to throw more light on the initiative, Mr Abraham, Vodafone Ghana was prepared to continue to support the GMA to enable the people of Ghana to benefit.
He said since the calls would not be billed, the company was not readily in the position to indicate the cost services to be provided to the doctors.
At the ceremony was the General Secretary of the GMA, Dr Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey who expressed the hope that the initiative would help doctors, especially those working at the district levels to readily seek expert advise from their colleagues elsewhere.

Caption: In the picture are from left: Mr Isaac Abraham Manager, Corporate Communications Vodafone, Dr Emmanuel Adom Winful, GMA President and Dr Sodzi Sodzi-Tettey, General Secretary of the GMA glancing through the directory.