Poverty has rendered Ghanaians impotent - Edumadze

Central Regional Minister Isaac Edumadze (MP) was almost at tears last Friday, lamenting how poverty seem to have rendered the otherwise alert Ghanaian so impotent that common diseases which are otherwise preventable are made to kill citizens in the country.

The more pathetic to him, is the position of the Central Region as one of the poorest regions in the country. That designation in relation to the other regions makes the situation even more critical and serious.

The minister was addressing stakeholders in the health sector, at the close of a mutual health insurance workshop. He described the situation as ?unfortunate and unacceptable? and called on the participants to work harder after the workshop to help their own people by making sure that we achieve some positive results in health care delivery.

About fifty participants from the health sector, district assemblies, Traditional Councils, civil servants and other organised bodies in the region attended the five-day workshop that had as its focus, the adoption of strategies on how social groups already under all sorts of economic constraints could be organised to contribute towards the health insurance fund.

Minister Edumadze suggested that with the implementation of Community-based help Planning and Services strategies that seek to bring health delivery to the doorstep of the people, health workers should be able to mobilise the people for the mutual health insurance scheme (MHIS).

As a compliment, the government is developing guidelines to provide technical and managerial support to any MHIS that would be formed.Also, health workers would be motivated to assure them that the government is sensitive to their plight and would do everything possible to provide incentives to motivate them.

The Regional Director of Health Services Dr Enias Sory asked health workers to live up to the current challenges of their profession by ensuring that they provide quality health services at an affordable cost.

According to him, the cash and carry system had brought in its wake a negative impression about health workers and charged them to correct this by putting in extra effort to show that they are friendly, ?people-oriented? and ready to save life.

He also urged the participants not to rest on their oars but work harder and also determine a way to give a feedback on their activities to their regional administrator.