Director of GICG appeals for improvement in sickle cell disease care in Ghana

The Director of the Ghana Institute of Clinical Genetics (GICG), Dr. Amma Benneh-Akwasi Kuma, has called on the government and helpers to assist in the improvement of the conditions of the sickle cell clinic at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.

The Director lamented that some challenges the sickle cell clinic at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital is battling with include; the unavailability of wards and lack of personnel that hinders the clinic from administering care over the weekends.

The doctor also appealed for the provision of adequate lab equipment that can help them carry out all sorts of tests that are imperative for sickle cell disease patients.

Dr. Benneh-Akwasi Kuma made this appeal during a media engagement on the commemoration of World Sickle Cell Day.

"In terms of challenges, we don't have wards and we can't work over the weekends and so that sometimes becomes a challenge and that's because we don't have infrastructure and we don't have personnel.

"Apart from that, we make do with what we have but we wish we can improve on what we have. If you do a tour around the place, you will realise that places where we detain people with sickle cell disease and crisis could do with some more enhancement so that it's comfortable for them when they come in.

"We also have a lab but we are not able to offer all the basic labs that we can do here and that's because we don't equipment and so it will be very nice if we can have equipment for some of the basic labs so that patients don't have to go outside and do these labs," she said.

Sickle cell is a disorder of the human cell that inflicts on the individual various health complications which can only be managed.

World Sickle Cell Day, marked on June 19, is an opportunity for UN Member states to create public awareness about the disorder, its cause, and the socioeconomic burden on the carrier, family, and larger society, among others.





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ABJ/WA