Doctors in V/R offer free medical treatment to communities

Dzroawode (VR), May 23, GNA - A medical team of seven doctors, 15 nurses and seven paramedics on Friday screened and treated around 600 people within and on the periphery of the vast Kalakpa Game and Forest Conservation in the Ho Municipal Area.

The programme was under the aegis of the Volta Division of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), which declared during its 50th anniversary last year, to offer free medical services to a selected hard-to-reach area in the region every year, under the banner, "Operation Recover Forgotten Territories."

A saloon car and a bus on the fleet were abandoned after a quarter of the journey, and the rest four-hour rugged part was on motorbikes, a chartered tractor and two four-wheel drive pickups with the doctors perched on top or beside cartons of drugs and equipment in the bucket of the vehicle.

The team created two reception centres at Dzroawode and Avetakpo, where others from the other settlements including, Agotive, Forsime, Wukpo, Folikope converged for treatment. At the centres, different consultation tables were set up for kids, women, and the elderly as well as general cases. There were also special tables for pregnant women and issues of child welfare.

Dr Gafatsi, GMA Volta Division Chairman told journalists that diseases prevalent in the area were skin rashes, worm infestation, malnutrition and anaemia among children, especially, malaria and a few cases of high blood pressure. He bemoaned the suffering of the people in the area where access to healthcare in emergencies, especially in the rainy season, could be nil. Dr Gafatsi recalled how "a pregnant woman carried on an improvised stretcher died midway while crossing one of the numerous streams there" and called for the construction of a road network in the "forgotten territory".

Adzo Lanyo, a Traditional Birth Attendant told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that, women in the community who delivered babies at home far outnumbered those who went to health facilities. She said deciding to go to a health facility could mean, three hours walk to a nearby town before looking for transport to Juapong, Ho, Battor or Mafi-Kumase. The Ghana Pharmaceutical Society provided drugs for the outreach programme. The premier outreach last year was at Bomigo, said to be in the "bowels of the Keta Lagoon" and accessible only by boat. 23 May 09