Editorial: Prayer Camps Threaten Health Of Nation

THE PROLIFERATION of prayer camps in the country is one that should be of worry to all Ghanaians, particularly the health sector and all relevant stakeholders, due to its grievous impacts on individuals and the nation at large.

The activities of these camps, which claim to cure numerous diseases that are serious medical situations, are doing the individual and society more harm than good in that in most cases, they aggravate the situation.

Usually, prayer camps are operated by persons who have no medical knowledge but claim to use the power of God and detain their patients to the last hour before sending them away to hospital.

This therefore either prolongs the treatment of the person at the hospital or may result in the needless death of the individual. In some cases, the camps may even tend to create the environment for diseases to set in or spread.

It is no doubt that such a situation would worsen the financial burden of the patient and family at large, considering the current economic situation in the country. Where parents are the patients, this goes a long way to affect, particularly, the education of their children.

For the nation to sit and allow the activities of these self-acclaimed healers to continue would be too great a cost to bear, as the nation will lose many of its workforce through needless death.

To the extent that the potency and safety of what these acclaimed prophets and prophetesses of God use in ‘curing’ cannot be ascertained and guaranteed, there is the need for government to take charge of the situation and take immediate steps to curb it.

Particularly, it would be helpful for the Ministry of Health and all relevant stakeholders to step up public education, especially in the rural areas where prayer camps are more common, in order to make meaningful the provision of health facilities provided for them.

There is also the need for health facilities to be resourced with the needed equipment to cater adequately for the needs of the people and at affordable cost.

Otherwise, rural folks, in particular, will continue to follow where their faith leads them in search of cure for their diseases in cases where the services are not available in their health centres, or where the services are available only at exorbitant fees.

Some of these prayer camps could truly be operating with the power of God, but since one can not easily determine which ones are doing the right thing, perhaps, government would have to take a look at the issue and find appropriate solutions to it.

A stitch in time saves nine