Day: August 5, 2021

Wa,– The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) has threatened to withdraw credential letters of healthcare providers that continue to charge its members illegal fees when they come to seek health care in their facilities.

According to the Authority, the charging of these illegal fees was having a toll on renewal of membership cards due to the bad experience they get whilst trying to seek healthcare in these facilities.

Mr Samuel Lobber, the Upper West Regional Manager of the NHIA who issued the threat during a media briefing in Wa, noted that these illegal charges were punishable per the contract NHIS and the service providers.

“Members who go through these bad experiences are likely to tell their experiences to potential members to influence them not to join the scheme”, he said.

Mr Lobber noted that hospital facilities were getting over 90 percent of their revenue through the NHIS and risked collapsing if they happen to have their credential letters withdrawn.

He disclosed that currently, there was a committee at the instance of Parliament working on various punitive measures against service providers that charge illegal fees and encouraged members to help identify such facilities as they could no longer continue to hide their identity.

On the high cost of medicines, Mr Lobber pointed out that as a country, they were currently doing over 30 percent of their healthcare cost on medicines, which according to him, was very bad as it surpassed the 24 percent threshold recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The Regional Manager of the NHIA cited demand and supply-side moral hazards, insufficient enforcement of the gatekeeper system, poor road network, and poor mobile network connectivity as some of the challenges affecting operations of the scheme in the region.

He, therefore, advised members of the scheme to stop jumping from one facility to the other collecting drugs, which they never complete the course but just creating mini pharmaceuticals in their homes and burdening the scheme with cost.

Mr Lobber also advised members against making the District Hospitals their first point of call when seeking healthcare and that it often resulted in congestion in those facilities, which also led to compromised quality of care for members.

He encouraged members to use the primary healthcare facilities and when the need be they would be referred to the District Hospitals for further treatment, adding that this would also help reduce the cost burden on the scheme.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra, – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC) on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding to sensitize the public on the Adolescent, Newborns, Maternal Health and Lead Poisoning project.

Ms Anastasiia Nurzhynska, Communication for Development Specialist, UNICEF, signed on behalf of the Fund while Professor Amin Alhassan, Director-General, GBC, signed for the Corporation.

As part of the agreement, GBC will roll out a six month comprehensive programme from August 2021 to January 2022 on its seven television channels and 18 radios stations across the country to highlight issues on the project for positive attitudes and outcomes.

Mr Kingsley Obeng-Kyere, Project Manager, said many adolescents were exposed to risks such as early pregnancies, gender-based violence, depression and lead poisoning, causing harm and even death through mental health disorders that occurred early in life.

Global research reveals that the leading cause of death for girls aged 15 to 19 is complications from pregnancy and childbirth.

He said communications and sharpened advocacy approach was necessary to shore up gains and stop a further downward trend, adding that the project would help with informed choices, worked on negative sexual and gender norms, myths, stereotypes and misinformation.

Mr Obeng-Kyere said interventions had worked in reducing the challenges faced by these adolescent girls from what it used to be, adding that under nutrition and obesity were receiving the necessary attention.

In Ghana, UNICEF and UNFPA joint programme had shaped positive and healthy gender norms, skills and behaviours around reproductive health issues, improve access to integrated gender-responsive health services for adolescent girls to develop as empowered and productive citizens.

Mr Obeng-Kyere, who is also the Producer for ‘Curious Minds’ programme for young people’s lives and development on GBC, expressed commitment to sustaining effective contents for young people.

He said the project was expected to ensure that more duty bearers would receive information on adolescents, gender and sexual and reproductive health and rights issues to support adolescent girls make informed choices.

Prof Alhassan said GBC over the year had proved to be the bedrock of development programming by expanding channels on radio, television and online.

The Professor assured stakeholders of the Corporation’s professional competencies to undertake the project which focused on Communication for Development.

Prof Alhassan said GBC was ready to implement the project and pledged to heighten awareness about adolescent Newborns, Maternal Health and Lead Poisoning issues and push for the necessary response and action.

Ms Nurzhynska commended GBC for the collaboration and express optimism that the project would create educational content for the audience to influence social norms and achieve the best interest of all children in the country.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Kumasi, – The Ashanti Regional Directorate of Veterinary Services has placed a ban on the movement of poultry and poultry products within and from other regions and districts affected by the Avian Influenza (bird flu).

The move is to help curb the spread of the disease in other parts of the region.

Dr Marlon Mensah, Ashanti Regional Veterinary Director told the Ghana News Agency that so far two farms in the Atwima enclave had been hit by the disease in the Ashanti Region.

A total of 2,350 birds died from the disease in the affected farms while Veterinary officers destroyed over 3,200 birds.

Seven (7) bags of poultry feed and 28 crates of egg were also destroyed in the affected farms.

Dr Mensah, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA), that the bird flu disease was first detected on July 29, this year at a farm in the Atwima Kwanwoma District of the Ashanti Region.

He said the Directorate had intensified its surveillance mechanisms and was assessing the situation on the ground.

“We don’t have any first-hand information, we are only responding to the initial alerts about the disease outbreak”, he stated.

Dr Mensah advised the people in the region to report any unusual deaths of domestic poultry and wild birds to the nearest Veterinary Office for prompt response.

The public should also avoid handling dead birds with bare hands and consume only well-cooked poultry meat and other poultry products.

Dr Mensah urged the public not to panic because the Regional Veterinary Directorate was taking all the necessary steps to contain the outbreak of the disease.

The Atwima enclave, made up of the Atwima Nwabiagya North and South Districts, Atwima Kwanwoma and Atwima Mponua, had the largest concentration of poultry farms in the Ashanti region.

They supply almost all the poultry products in the region and the outbreak of the bird flu disease in the area is a source of worry to many people who depend on the farms for either business or food.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Tema,- The Tema General Hospital on Thursday marked this year’s breastfeeding week celebration with a float through some principal streets of Tema amidst singing and engaging motorists with messages.

The float started from the premises of the hospital through the main streets of communities ‘11, 10, 6, 4, 8, 9’ and back to the hospital educated and interacted with onlookers and passengers in vehicles.

This year’s celebration is on the theme: “Start Right: Feed Right, From Birth up to two Years and Beyond”.

Ms Joyce Aware, Senior Nutrition Office at the Tema General Hospital, said the float was to create community awareness on the importance of breastfeeding, most especially the need for exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months in a child’s life.

Touching on the benefits of exclusive breastfeeding, she said, initiating breastfeeding immediately after birth, will enable the child to grow healthier as breastmilk naturally contained all the nutrients that the child needed.

Exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months, she noted provided the child with the right antibodies for adequate protection from infections.

Ms Asare disclosed that there were a lot of malnutrition cases in Tema among children under six months because lactating mothers do not practice exclusive breastfeeding.

She expressed worry at the rate at which lactating mothers stop practicing exclusive breastfeeding after three months’ maternity leave and rather fed their children with other forms of feeding.

She said, “from the history we’ve gathered so far, most of the mothers are not practicing exclusive breastfeeding and this is as a result of them resuming work early and they tend to feed them with other things making them not to grow well.

“There’s a way of continuous breastfeeding up to the first six months so they should contact health workers for assistance to practice the exclusive breastfeeding and if possible continue up to two years,” she added.

The nutrition officer revealed that COVID-19 had affected the rate at which lactating mothers visited weighing centres as breastfeeding talks are routinely done to educate them on what is expected.

Ms Asare urged lactating mothers of children less than six months to continue breastfeeding as breastmilk was needed to boost their immunity.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra, August 5, GNA – The Ghana Health Service (GHS) says it is updating records of all fully vaccinated individuals to enable ease of verification.

This is part of efforts to address the inability of some vaccinated individuals, especially those traveling outside Ghana, to verify their proof of vaccination using the Barcode (QR code) at the back of their COVID-19 Vaccination Cards or via the https://covid19vaccination.gov.gh/verifyportal.

A statement signed by Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, Director General of the Service and made available to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Thursday, said in the interim, a desk had been set up at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA)for verification of vaccination status for travellers.

The statement said persons who had received two doses of AstraZeneca or Sputnik-V vaccine departing from KIA should contact the Vaccination Verification Desk of the Port Health Unit at the Departure Hall of KIA to verify their vaccination status prior to departure.

It said other fully vaccinated individuals desirous of verifying their vaccination status should visit the nearest health facility or District Health Directorate for assistance.

The Ghana Health Service, as part of COVID-19 vaccination data quality assurance process, instituted a system of data validation for individuals fully vaccinated against the COVID-19.

The process includes placement of a registered metallic peel (hologram with security features) on the vaccination card as proof of full vaccination and a barcode to check vaccination status.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Accra, August 05, GNA – Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, the Director-General, Ghana Health Service on Thursday said there has been a decline in exclusive breastfeeding in the last decade.

Having dropped from 63 per cent in 2008, to the current prevalence of 43 percent he noted that the raging COVID-19 pandemic had aggravated the situation.

Speaking at the launch of the World Breastfeeding Week, he said globally, the pandemic had caused significant disruptions in breastfeeding support services while increasing the risk of food insecurity and malnutrition.

Also, there was a growing concern that producers of baby foods had compounded these risks by invoking unfounded fears that breastfeeding could transmit COVID-19 from the mother to the child and marketing their products as a safer alternative to breastfeeding.

The launch on the theme: Protect Breastfeeding: A Shared responsibility is to revisit actions and country commitments by prioritising breastfeeding-friendly environments for mothers and their babies.

These actions include ensuring the full implementation of the International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes by governments, health workers, and industry, to protect mothers from aggressive marketing practices by the baby food industry.

It is also aimed at sustaining ongoing capacity building to provide healthcare workers the needed resources and information, to effectively support mothers to breastfeed.

Employers are also encouraged to allow women the time and space needed to breastfeed, including paid parental leave with longer maternity leave, providing safe places for breastfeeding in the workplace, access to affordable and good-quality childcare, universal child benefits, and adequate wages.

He said “close contact and early, exclusive breastfeeding helps a baby to thrive, therefore a woman with COVID-19 should be supported to breastfeed safely, hold her newborn skin-to-skin, and share a room with her baby,” saying it was vital to ensure that breastfeeding mothers do not get targeted by industry or marketing professionals who wanted to jeopardise their natural ability for breastfeeding by promoting formula-feeding.

The Director-General said breastfeeding acts as babies’ first vaccine, protecting them against many common childhood illnesses, therefore breastfeeding remained central to the survival, health, and wellbeing of women, children, and nations.

Additionally, optimal breastfeeding, which entailed initiation of breastfeeding within the first hour of birth, followed by exclusive breastfeeding for six months and continuing for up to two years and beyond, offered a powerful line of defense against all forms of child malnutrition, including wasting and obesity, he explained.

Dr Kuma-Aboagye said the Week, which is celebrated annually in the first week of August, is a global campaign coordinated by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action, to raise awareness and galvanise action to support the effective practice of breastfeeding.

The GHS and the Ministry of Health working in close collaboration with key health partners including UNICEF and WHO, would commemorate the week’s campaign focusing on information sharing on the importance of breastfeeding, anchoring support as a vital public health responsibility, and engaging with individuals and organisations for greater impact.

The national goal, he said, was to work collectively to safeguard the health of women and children by ensuring that every child’s right to nutritious, safe, and affordable food and adequate nutrition was realised from the beginning of life, starting with breastfeeding.

“Expectant and nursing mothers require special protection to prevent harm to their infants’ health, and they need adequate time to give birth, to recover, and to nurse their children,” and at the same time, they also required protection to ensure that their jobs were not jeopardised because of pregnancy or maternity leave, he said.

Dr Kuma-Aboagye called on all stakeholders and all who had the opportunity to make investments and commitments, to support actions to reduce malnutrition including protecting, promoting, and supporting breastfeeding through stronger policies, programmes, and actions and urged community leaders and their residents to champion the cause and serve as advocates in their respective communities.

Source: Ghana News Agency

Tema,- Employers have been caution against using the HIV and AIDS status of prospective employees as a prerequisite for employment as the act is an affront to Ghana’s Health Laws, and the Workplace HIV/TB policy.

Dr Stephen Ayisi Addo, Programme Manager for the National AIDS/STI Control Programme giving the caution in Tema stressed that the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention and the Ghana Aids Commission Act state clearly that no one should be denied employment because of their status.

Dr Ayisi Addo who was speaking at the fifth Ghana News Agency-Tema Regional Office’s stakeholder engagement and workers’ appreciation day seminar noted that management of organisations should not even move to the situation of mandatorily demanding for such screening and subsequently using it as a condition.

He was speaking on the topic, “workplace policy on HIV/AIDS, who enforces it: the legal basis for churches demanding HIV/AIDS test from would-be partners? Role of partners of infected individual”.

The GNA-Tema stakeholder engagement is a media caucus platform created to give the opportunity to both state and non-state stakeholders to interact with journalists and address national issues while deepening the working relations with the stakeholders to ensure that both the media and the corporate world work together towards national development.

He emphasised that “we should not impose screening of HIV on anybody as a condition for employment even though as a Programme we are interested in many people knowing their status, but not as a condition for certain important things in life like employment, and marriage”.

He disclosed that the programme was engaging with the military to review its policy of mandatory testing for recruitment, saying that, “they do it mandatory because they need people of a certain performance rate to be able to thrive effectively in a strong stressful environment, so it is because of that purposes”.

Dr Ayisi Addo noted that one of the reasons why management could know a person’s status was for the placement of the person at a position that would not affect his or her immunity, but not to discriminate against that person.

He said, “help the person with medical care, change his work schedule but not to lay them off because they tested positive”.

HIV, he said was a workplace issue as it affected people who come to work and one could contract it there, therefore the need for every organization to come out with HIV Workplace Policy on how to better manage positive employees without it affecting their outputs.

“A workplace is a place for interaction, social intercourse and in the process, there can physical contact and therefore communicable diseases, like COVID-19 and HIV can occur, HIV is created in the workplace and it must therefore be managed in the workplace,” he said.

He indicated that issues surrounding HIV and TB must be handled with non-discrimination, saying stigma and discrimination were big barriers in HIV prevention.

Dr Ayisi Addo explained that stigmatization was tagging something or somebody that leads to people responding to it negatively “so the moment I tag something and people start shying away, I have stigmatized the person and we do that sometimes carelessly”.

Other speakers: Mr Fred Asiedu-Dartey, GSA Head of Freight and Logistics who spoke on: “Emerging trends in Ghana’s maritime industry – the perspective of the Ghana Shippers Authority”.

Mr Timothy Anyidoho, Senior Staff, Lands Commission and Mr George Okwabi Frimpong, a senior member of the Licensed Surveyors Association of Ghana jointly spoke on: “the authority in charge of the management of stool or skin, clan or family lands; the role of Customary Land Secretariat; Systems of recording and registering land and interests in land; What is electronic conveyancing; and Procedures under the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act, 201”.

Source: Ghana News Agency