Accra,- GIZ has donated equipment to the Health Promotion Division of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), to furnish their resource call centre as part of measures to improve surveillance activities.
This would position the service to detect outbreaks early to enhance response mechanisms.
The equipment donated included; Printers, Pointers, Projector, External Hard Drive (1TB), Pen drives (64GB), External DVD Rom, D-Link Switch, Ethernet Converters, Universal Mifi Devices, 30 Adobe lustrator Software, 31 Adobe Photoshop Software, 32 Adobe Indesign Software, Router, and Unified Communication QuadCore.
The rest are; Storage,8gig RAM, with Pre-installed 3cx Debian, FanvilX3U Desk phone, Senver setup programming and Training, Logitech H390Headsets (USB), Telecommunications Fixed Line setup, Internet Broadband, Microsoft Office suit (software), Laptops, Computer monitors, Computer docking stations among others.
Mr. Raphael Frerking, the The Programme Manager Governance for Inclusive Development (GovID) of GIZ, stated that risk communication, surveillance activities and promotion of health across the entire country was a success factor to combat diseases such as COVID-19.
He said the pandemic had revealed how important surveillance activities were for public health and the need for timely response to disease outbreaks such as ebola and meningitis.
Mr Frerking explained that the call centre would serve as a digital channel for risk communication which is pertinent in managing epidemics to position the division better in dealing with issues of public health.
“The call centre will attend to the health needs of citizens thereby contributing to effective and efficient public service delivery”, he added.
He said the GIZ was willing to continue the support already given to Ghana Health Service in this regard.
Mrs Bridget Anim, the Deputy Director of the Health Promotion Division, receiving the equipment and a certificate on behalf of Director General, GHS expressed gratitude to GIZ for the support, and pledged to put it into good use.
She said there were other telemedicine apps used to provide COVID related information and on diseases to ensure interoperability.
To prevent non-duplication of efforts and rumours and misinformation management, the apps would be linked to the resource call centre.
GIZ is supporting Health Promotion Division of GHS in their Risk Communication and community engagement interventions to prevent spread of COVID-19 and to enhance adherence to the safety protocols and generate demand for the COVID-19 vaccines.
She added stated that it would support the exchange of timely health messages between Health experts and the public. “It is our fervent hope that, this will increase health literacy in the country”, she said.
The centre, is expected to be ready by the end of the year.
Source: Ghana News Agency
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