Media urged to champion free, universal healthcare agenda

 The Director General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Prof. Sam­uel Kaba Akoriyea, has urged the media to champion free, universally accessible healthcare agenda across Ghana, regardless of one’s connec­tions or location.

According to Prof. Akoriyea, ev­ery Ghanaian deserve equal access to quality healthcare irrespective of their social status or connections, saying that, “no one should go to the hospital and need to know somebody before he gets treated,” calling such practices a relic must be consigned to the past.

He said this on Wednesday when he paid a courtesy call on the manage­ment of New Times Corporation (NTC) in Accra.

The visit was to familiarise with operations of the media house and forge partnership to achieve his vision for the service.

Prof. Akoriyea underscored the need for a collective support to achieve that goal saying “we cannot do it alone, we will need your help as a media house to highlight some of the vision that we have.”

He acknowledged the crucial role of the media in shaping positive health seeking behaviours, particularly among the youth, urging it to partner with the GHS to promote preventive health initiatives for a healthier pop­ulation.

He also appealed for innovative media campaigns to curb the youth’s growing reliance on illicit drugs known as “red,” “blue tooth” and others by making health‐promotion messages catchy and relevant.

He also expressed concern over the rising cases of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as hypertension and others and its economic effects on patients and families as a whole.

He also indicated that since the launch of a fund for non-communica­ble diseases by the President to cover treatments such as dialysis, the GHS has moved to prevent patients from being trapped in a cycle of endless, costly procedures.

Moreover, Prof. Akoriyea reiterated that dialysis was merely a “stopgap measure” and indicated plans of ex­ploring organ donation and transplan­tation as long-term solutions.

To coordinate efforts, he empha­sised that the Service will appoint a media focal person to collaborate with its Public Relations and Health Promotion units, forging a sustainable, district-level communication strategy and called for collaboration to bring better health to Ghanaians

The Managing Director of NTC, Mr Martin Adu-Owusu, on his part rec­ognised the importance of health promotion in reducing Ghana’s disease burden, assuring of the Corporation’s support to the GHS in that direction.

“For me, this is a call for teamwork, don’t forget we are all working for mother Ghana because at the end when we’re successful, we’ll share the glory. We are ready to collaborate with the GHS to ensure that health promotion becomes paramount in the everyday health system,” he assured.

 By Jemima Esinam Kuatsinu