The event organised by TWARM in partnership with the China Africa Chamber of Commerce was held in China to recognise the impact herbal-medicine practitioners were making on the health of people.

The award was also to recognise how Amen Scientific Herbal Hospital had created a niche in the market through effective cure and treatments of complicated diseases.

The complicated diseases under chronic and acute types included multiple sclerosis, neurological problems, and different kinds of tumour diseases.

Dr Bonsu who told the Ghana News Agency in an interview in Accra said as part of the recognition of the Hospital's comprehensive diseases treatment, students across the world were periodically sponsored to learn its operations in Ghana especially on how to cure complicated diseases.

He advised the citizenry to develop interest for made-in-Ghana goods including locally manufactured herbal medicines as they were more effective. Patronage of local produce also helps to create job opportunities for the youth.

Dr Bonsu reiterated that it was necessary for Ghanaians to have faith in local herbal-medicine practitioners and not underrate their capabilities but rather consult them whenever they had health complications.

He said: "sometimes people would go round the world with their diseases for cure, but end up coming back to us for treatment."

Dr Bonsu said: "If you directly or indirectly cause the death of an innocent person, it is as if you have killed the whole mankind but if directly or indirectly, you give somebody life, to God, it is as if you have given the entire world life."

The Hospital, he said, was therefore always researching to find better ways to give treatments to its patients, saying, the honour would encourage them to bring out their best for healthcare promotion.

"We need to do this for the good life and good health of our people as well as the betterment of our economy," he said.

He appealed to government to enroll herbal-medicine practitioners onto the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) as a good number of the citizenry resorted to their mode of treatments for healthcare.

"If many people come there for treatment and you are putting a policy in place for the benefit of the people, then by all means, it has to cover herbal-medicine practitioners also, so that people can completely benefit from the Scheme, otherwise the scheme is not sufficient for holistic benefit of the people," he said.

Dr Bonsu explained that enrolling them onto the NHIS would reduce the rate at which medicines are imported, and boost the demand and supply of local herbal-medicines to improve on the economy.