The National Cardiothoracic Centre of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has organised a general health screening exercise for personnel of the Ghana Police Service at its headquarters in Accra.

About 50 health workers from the centre, including 12 doctors and 18 nurses, led the exercise to screen the personnel for high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, cholesterol and other vitals, which are the major causes of stroke and heart attacks in communities.

As early as 7 a.m. the medical staff had set up in a designated room at the police headquarters paving the way for the first screening at about 8:15 a.m, with a target to screen about 400 personnel.

A Consultant Cardiologist and Chairman of the 35th Anniversary Planning Committee of the Cardiothoracic Centre, Dr Innocent Adzamli, told the Daily Graphic that the centre embarked on the medical screening for communities and identifiable groups as a way of giving back to society.

He said the Ghana Police Service, being a major stakeholder and protector of the community, was chosen because of the critical role they played in the society and also to ensure their fitness going into the December polls.

Risk factors

Dr Adzamli explained that the officers and personnel were screened for diseases such as blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and other life-threatening diseases which were cardiovascular disease risk factors.

“They are the risk factors that make people get stroke, heart attacks and so on, and this is quite common in our society. They don’t make you very sick like malaria, but you would be walking around with all these risk factors,” the Consultant explained.

He added that some officers could be moving around without knowing their health status, hence the reason the centre decided to check them for those disease conditions.

“The elections are coming and they are also preparing and this is to make sure they are strong and healthy enough to be able to police our elections, come December,” the 35th anniversary planning committee chairman said.

Dr Adzamli said the cardiovascular risk factors were not something that would manifest into a sickness that would knock patients down so they should visit the hospital at least once a year to check their health status, particularly their vital statistics including blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels in order to prevent the disease and avoid any sudden death.