Mr Abraham Koomson, the Secretary General of the Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL), has urged the Ghana Trades Union Congress (TUC) and other labour unions to advocate the adoption of annual medical health screening programmes for employees. While most corporate organisations used to have medical plans for employees to undergo periodic check-ups, that had been weakened in recent years to the worker’s detriment, he said. The medical screening policy should make an annual staff health screening necessary to protect the workers from illnesses, who most often did not have the time to seek medical care while on the job. Mr Koomson made the call at the weekly ‘Your Health! Our Collective Responsibility,’ a Ghana News Agency initiative aimed at promoting health-related communication to enhance choices through improved health literacy. The Tema Regional Office of the Ghana News Agency launched the public health advocacy platform to examine the components of four health communication approaches: informing, instructing, persuading, and promoting. He advocated for reforms to guarantee that employee health requirements were taken into account in any agreements between companies and employees. He said corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions should begin within companies rather than focusing solely on others, and the health screenings could be one of such for early detection of diseases and treatment. ‘Periodic health screening must be taken seriously… eye screening, for example, should be done at least every 18 months to help discover any abnormalities early,’ he said. Mr Francis Ameyibor, Tema Regional Manager, GNA, said workers’ health had a great influence on productivity, hence employers must make it an annual mandate to screen their staff. He said good healthcare communication guaranteed understanding of health-related issues both by patients and healthcare practitioners.
Source: Ghana News Agency
