Features
When is medical treatment abroad stopping?
I am yet to find an American or European government official travelling to any part of Africa for healthcare. However, the exact opposite is the case for political leaders in many African countries.
The question that quickly comes to mind is why this situation? The obvious answer is that enough investment had not been made in this sector over the years to create or develop more expertise in various fields in medicine.
Since childhood, I have heard of government officials, prominent members of society, etc. going abroad for medical care. Between my childhood and now is a lot of years which is enough time for serious effort to have been made, to change the state of our health delivery system so the requisite capacity can be developed to take care of our leaders, when they fall sick.
It is unacceptable that a nation like ours after 60 plus years of independence, cannot boast of a health system capable of taking care of our own people but has to depend on other countries to provide health services in most instances for our leaders.
It is not for lack of personnel because Ghanaians are all over the world with a lot of highly qualified medical personnel in top class hospitals especially in America and Europe.
Our own Professor Frimpong Boateng, a world class heart surgeon, is an example. The issue, as with a lot of things in this country is a lack of focus which is a function of poor leadership.
I remember the elder brother of a friend, a medical doctor who goes to offer free services at a hospital whenever he comes to Ghana from Germany on holidays. He used to complain of lack of equipment for carrying out certain procedures.
It is mind boggling why we cannot equip our medical facilities so that the top quality medical practitioners can come back home and help address the deficit of enough experts in the health sector.
There are some Ghanaians willing to come back to work after securing financial independence abroad, to as it were give back to society for what the nation has done for them in terms of their starting their education and ending in at least our secondary schools or high schools.
Pressure must be brought by all well-meaning Ghanaians to bear on our leaders to ensure that the necessary things in terms of experts, equipment, beds and whatever, is in place so our big men will not have to travel outside the country for treatment.
In fact, the time has come for us to demand that no government official will be sent outside the country for treatment. This is the only way to force them to ensure that basic items like beds are not in short supply at our hospitals especially emergency centres.
I was appalled at one of the leading hospitals in Accra where a medical personnel had to check something around the tummy of an emergency patient and there was no screen to give her the required privacy. I was so shocked and angry that such a thing was happening in this country after 60 years of independence.
We should prioritise our needs as a nation. We cannot retain the best of medical personnel by refusing to provide them with the requisite remuneration so they will be motivated to stay in the country and give of their best to patients.
Medical skills are now a sought-after commodity and like soccer players if we do not pay them well, they will go outside to seek greener pastures and our health delivery like our local league, will be nothing to write home about. God bless.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
THE typical itinerant salesman in Sikaman is a herbalist. He is normally a slim macho with the capacity to perambulate the expanse of area covering the triangle of Accra-Tema-Ashiaman. In short, he can walk a total of 60 miles a day, marketing a product that cures every disease, including poverty. 
The door-to-door herbal pharmacist advertises his product by word of mouth. He has nothing to do with the Food and Drugs Board (FDB). After all, his concoctions do not feature on FM stations.
Those herbalists who cannot walk to propagate the herbal gospel, liaise with drivers of mass transportation and their mates. They are, therefore, given the chance to sell their products on Benz buses that ply the routes.
Normally, the herbalist starts his sales message with a prayer and Bible study. He asks the passengers to bow down their heads in supplication to God the father, the son, the Holy Spirit.
When a herbalist asks the passengers to close their eyes and bow their heads, Moslems on board naturally feel offended. They feel that the herbalist has no right to assume that every passenger is a Christian. They think such an assumption is an affront to Islam.
So a Moslem on board will raise the hand for a point of order. He’ll remind the herbalist that it would be in his own interest to mind his language.
“Be careful the way you address people in a public place. Not every person here is a Christian,” he’d state assertively.
Of course, the herbalist will promptly ignore him, but would all the same “watch” his tongue. Who knows whether or not the Moslem brother is inspired by Quoranic zeal to defend the tenets of Islam to the hilt?
When he starts saying, “Wallahi!” and “Inshallah!” it could be the beginning of proclaiming Islam as supreme, a point which must be driven home with talibanic precision.
So the herbalist must tread carefully lest he steps on fire.
The herbalist could even add a measure of mirth to it all, by announcing that Christians on board today have very interesting company on the journey, but that should not detract from the business of the day.
The Moslem brother will weigh the words carefully and offer a wry smile.
He must be careful the occasion does not degenerate into the use of semantics and proverbial oration to deride his conviction that public utterances must be mindful of religious sensibilities. He has made his point very clear and expects that it is taken in good faith in the interest of a peaceful journey.
The herbalist will now open the New Testament and preach salvation, stating clearly that salvation can come only through Jesus Christ and NOBODY else.
The Moslem brother will now start twitching his moustache. The visible and almost revolutionary reflexes of his upper lip can be an indication that sentiments have begun superseding reason, and the outcome could well be tragic now shift uneasily in his seat.
The time has come for him to also express his right to the religion of his fore-bears. He’ll put his hand into his pocket and rise to his feet. The time has indeed come!
This article was first published on Saturday, September 9, 2006
When the cause of a particular problem like sickness, disease, sudden illness, a social issue etc. are not known, it stands to reason that resolving it becomes a huge challenge.
Citizens would understand the government when public announcements are made to the effect that government is trying to find a solution to the issue, even though it is taking a while for it to be resolved because citizens are rational beings.
On the other hand, if the solution to a particular issue is known to everybody but the government for whatever reason, is dragging its feet in resolving it, citizens become frustrated and begin to lose trust in their leaders.
One such issue is the heavy traffic along a section of the Kasoa – Odokor road. A short stretch of bad road between the traffic light at the Weija Government Hospital and the entrance to the entrance of the overhead that leads to the N1, is the cause of the problem but nothing is being done about it, day after day, week after week, month after month. Thus is clearly unacceptable.
Another issue that requires urgent attention is the lack of pavements along a lot of streets in parts of the various Municipal Assemblies. Exercise is a prerequisite for long life and healthy living and for those of us who it has become a way of life, this issue of people putting up structures right to the edge of the drains beside the roads, are making life difficult for us.
We are compelled to walk along the roads, putting our lives at serious risk. Pedestrians should never be compelled to compete with vehicles on our streets and roads. Roads and streets are made for vehicles and pavements are made for pedestrians. That is the norm. Any attempt to normalise a situation where pedestrians are mingling with vehicles is insanity.
It is the road regulations that makes it so and therefore district or municipal assemblies are to take responsibility and ensure that spaces for pavements are not encroached upon. Citizens have rights that must be protected by their leaders and making pavements available to pedestrians, is one of them.
When we hear of teachers having sex with students, it appears it is something recent. It is not a new phenomenon. It has been there since Adam. Perhaps this issue is getting much attention due to the proliferation of social media. It was an open secret in times past when Teachers were in relationships with female students and some married them immediately after completion of school.
Some teachers were also known to be having unholy interactions with female pupils but due to the times that these acts occurred, human rights issues and the awareness around it, allowed such unscrupulous teachers to get away with their crimes.
Now we are in a different era and so a Headmaster is now in hot waters. He is alleged to have raped about 19 female students and as usual, some officials tried to cover it up and are also in hot waters and their actions or inactions in the matter are under investigation.
Why the man has been allowed to roam freely without being arrested is simply mind boggling. It appears that the law applies differently, depending on who you are. This issue came to public attention sometime in August this year, yet the police had not arrested or invited this man for question regarding the rape allegation.
It has come out that he is a Constituency Secretary of the ruling party and the question in the public domain is that, is it because he is a political figure that is why he is still walking around without questioning? I believe in the rule of law so let us hold our breadth and let the proper thing be done.
The police must however be seen to be active in this matter. God bless.
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