More than 300 residents of Korle Gonno, a community within the Ablekuma South Sub-Metropolitan have benefited from a health outreach programme organised by the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) over the weekend. 

Organised under the theme “Reaching out to our communities, improving universal health coverage” the outreach sought to renew the relationship between the KBTH and its neighbouring communities, whilst providing free healthcare to ensure a healthy community.

Amongst the tests conducted were malaria; Human Immunodeficiency Virus; Blood Pressure; Body Mass Index; Sugar levels; Ear, Nose and Throat tests and Eye tests.

Addressing the media, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KBTH, Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah, said that the exercise was in line with the government’s initiative of providing universal health coverage to all and would partner with the ministry of health to ensure its success. 

“Looking at the trend of cases we are seeing, we realised that young people with a lot of conditions such as diabetes, hypertension etc was on the rise so we felt that it was important to go into that community and do some screening to pick up these cases early,” he bemoaned.

He added that as means to improve access to healthcare in the country, the exercise would be replicated in the neighbouring communities and other parts of the country, explaining that “last year the KBTH undertook about 55 separate outreach activities across the country.”

He disclosed that there were doctors on-site to counsel residents if they were found with any of these diseases, whilst those with surgical needs would be “processed by the specialist on standby, rescheduled to appear at the Surgical unit of KBTH at a later time for their free surgery.”

The Head of Nursing and Midwifery, Dr Rita EsiAryee, said due to rigorous sensitisation, the expectation for the exercise had been met, as more people took part in the exercise as compared to the previous years. 

“We did a lot of sensitisations hence the increase in numbers. We have detected high Blood Pressure and diabetes in some of the residents which have been on their blind side, but we have counselled and prescribed medication for them,” she hinted.  

The Head of Pharmacy, Dr Daniel Ankrah, on his part said that the residents had been sensitised on “how to use and store their medicines and how to properly dispose of unused medicines.”

He added that pharmacies such as Kina Pharma Limited (Ltd), Pharmanova Ltd, Tobinco Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Palb Pharmacy Ltd, OA &J Pharmaceuticals Ltd, M&G Pharmaceuticals Ltd and East Cantonments Pharmacy Ltd, donated medicines as a form of support for the outreach.

A beneficiary of the outreach, Mrs Janet Quaye, expressed her excitement about the exercise and commended the KBTH for this initiative whilst calling for more of such exercises within the community.

“Not all persons within the community can afford quality healthcare hence the importance of this exercise,” she said.