GMA Constitution
[pdf-embedder url=”https://ghanamedassoc.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Constitution-Final-Working-Document.pdf” title=”Constitution – Final Working Document”]534 KIDS DEAD…AND THEIR BLOOD WAS RED
Dear Group of Honourable Members of Parliament (G-275),
It’s about four weeks since one Honourable was sad, angry and pissed because he experienced a fraction of what we go through every single day of our life working in Child health in Ghana. Since then I have watched some of you talking in the media along political party lines, bragging about what governments past and present have done for healthcare in Ghana.
ISN’T THAT THE PICU KID DANCING AZONTO?
I sat in my business managers office to discuss with her some tasks that needed completion.The year had just begun but it was already proving challenging as it seemed as if the children had just been waiting for Christmas to be over to start falling sick. Our Pediatric emergency was busy with critically ill children.
WE MADE A MIRACLE HAPPEN: A mother’s unspoken wish
It was exactly a week ago today that I stood under a tree in the hospital, talking with Ofori on the phone. Ofori is a wonderful neurosurgeon and sorts out the kids I refer to him. I talked with him about how the day before, I had lost a kid to a brain tumour.The kid, who had a brain tumour, had fallen through a crack in the healthcare system and had died.I spoke with Francis about how challenging the system was for the ordinary Ghanaian.
MY HEART MY SPORT
My heart is racing, it is pumping faster and faster. It appears my blood pressure is rising, more blood is being squeezed out of my chest. Suddenly, I am finding it difficult to breathe, it seems a stone aged man is pressing harder on my chest. I am almost fainting.
Then in a split second all of this has come to an end. It is a goal!!!!!!!! The final penalty has been slotted into the net. The mental and cardiac torture has suddenly turned into a huge bowl of excitement, I am jumping up and down and the trophy is won.
This is a perfect description of the emotional cycle that as sports fans, we all go through. I am sure the actors in the game do go through the same cycle.
Emotion is described as any strong agitation of feelings activated by experiencing love, hate fear, joy or the like and usually accompanied by certain physiological changes such as increase in heart beat or respiration and often associated with overt manifestations such as crying or shaking.
No matter your sport, be it athletics, badminton, wrestling, judo, boxing, basketball, football, swimming, golf, ampe and the rest, it is associated with deep emotions.
How many times haven’t we seen the actors in the game break down in tears either with joy or sadness. In all this, the heart is at the centre.
In the just ended Euro 2016 final, an Icelandic commentator, Guomundur Benediktsson, became very popular by going into an emotional overdrive, some may call it “crazy”, when Iceland won in the last minute of their game against Austria and again when they won against England. This is what I call popularity by emotions.
Neymar da Silva broke down in tears when Brazil won their first ever Olympic gold medal in football at the Rio 2016 “Zika” Games. Ooops!!!! I meant the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. This is tears of joy. Indeed several actors of the game in all kinds of sporting disciplines have shared tears either because of winning or sadness of losing games.
The cycle of emotions usually differ depending on the situation during the game. In the case of football, it is usually at its peak when your team is leading or down by a goal to nil and there are few minutes left on the clock for the game to end.
For the fans of the team leading, time seems to come to a standstill whilst for the fans of the loosing team, time seems to run faster than it should. This is emotions at its best!!!. There are times that you can barely watch and only wish and pray that some unforeseen hand will turn the hands of time either clockwise or anticlockwise depending on your situation.
Emotions in sports has propensity and the ability to separate love ones including husband and wife. It can bring together avowed enemies and separate the best of friends and indeed again create a bond of friendship beyond the borders of normality.
Sport is indeed a heart modifier. Some sports enthusiasts have lost their lives simply because of excessive emotional expressions. This is simply because the heart decided it couldn’t take it any longer.
My advice is that let’s our heads rule our hearts when it comes to sports. This is because it is the only event in this world that has clear predictable outcomes. It is either you win or loose and depending on your sports you can draw.
My heart my sport, your heart your sport.
This write up is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Patrick Oppong, a friend and a brother. May his beloved Soul rest in perfect peace, in as much as the only sports he loved was ampe.
Dr. Frank Serebour
What’s In A Name? Patients? Customers? Or Partners ?
In my first clinical year in level 500 while taking history from a patient, I asked , “Are you a sickler ? ” The patient, a lady , responded no. Knowing why she had reported to the hospital and subsequently been admitted, I was surprised so I asked “Are you sure or you haven’t tested before?”
CERVICAL CANCER SCREENING/PREVENTION IN GHANA: CONTRIBUTION AND LESSONS FROM CATHOLIC HOSPITAL, BATTOR
In 1986, Dr. Forkuoh, gynaecologist in Catholic Hospital, Battor, was trained in gynecological cytology in Cologne, Germany. On his return, He, together with another gynaecologist, Sr. Edgitha Gorges in Battor screened over 5000 women with pap smears.
CARING FOR OUR CAREGIVERS
A few days ago, it was reported that at the direction of the President, Dr. David Abdulai of the Shekina Clinic, in Tamale, has been evacuated to Accra, for care for Stage 4 thyroid cancer. According to the Minister of Health, “The President directed the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) to evacuate Dr. Abdulai to Accra 3 days ago so he can receive optimal care. By all accounts Dr. Abdulai has rendered selfless care to the needy over many years. He therefore deserves any assistance he can get. I wish him the very best and pray for his recovery.
Supporting Young ones Living with Diabetes Mellitus in Ghana …and beyond.
October 2012 was the month I decided I had to actively start a support network for young ones living with Diabetes in Ghana. I had been working in Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital for about 2 years and I had noticed that we had a number of youngsters living with Diabetes who were poorly managed.
My first encounter with a young person with Diabetes was when I was a resident in Korle Bu Teaching hospital. I remember the teenage girl who came for Monday clinics with her uncle. He was always complaining about her behaviour of not eating the right things. I remember we bonded in a funny way such that every time she came for review, the nurses would make sure that she sees me and we would always have a good laugh.
Next encounter was with 11 year old Issaka who was newly diagnosed and brought from the polyclinic to our team on duty. He and his dad looked so scared that day as they had no clue what was going on. Prof Neequaye asked me to take care of him when he was discharged making sure that he did not miss any school. This began our 7 year relationship. With the help of other doctors we made sure that he never missed a day of school and was rarely admitted for complications of diabetes. He currently a Senior High School Graduate awaiting entry into a tertiary institution.
I started Diabetes Youth Care in the Western Region (with the aim of providing some form of support for young ones under the age of 30 living with diabetes) with 5 young ones. Over the years, it has grown to a population of more than 100 with most of them in the southern part of the country.
The primary aim is to create a platform to educate, inform and manage these young ones.
One of the first things which struck me was the huge void in managing adolescents with chronic diseases. I am not an adolescent health specialist, but I realised that just paying attention and having a little bit more time for these young ones will go a long way to make them comfortable enough to talk to you and share their problems.
Also, their unique problems did not encourage them to attend chronic disease clinics with the adults. I found out that the adolescents would rather skip the clinic or present to the clinic late, than have to sit with the adults.
Some of the questions or comments made by the adults at the clinic were at times derogatory.
- You were eating too much sugar so you got diabetes
- Oh no I don’t think I would let my son (or daughter) marry someone with diabetes.
- Are you bringing your mother (or father) to the clinic?
- How can you get diabetes at this young age? What did you do wrong?
Comments from health personnel were
- Screaming out the blood glucose results and reprimanding them for the abnormal values
- Telling them to stop eating too much sugar
- Telling them they would die because of the diabetes (especially at the time of diagnosis)
With their privacy almost non-existent, most of them would rather not come to the hospital. This resulted in poor compliance to their medications and development of complications leading to poor quality of life.
Our healthcare institutions are mostly not adolescent friendly as many do not have clinics solely for this category of people. Managing diabetes is also expensive. Insulin which is supposed to be under the coverage of health insurance is not in most health care facilities. The hospitals which stock the medication are few and when they do, they provide only one vial per month which is highly inadequate.
Vital to the management of diabetes are glucometers and strips for home monitoring, syringes for insulin injections, none of which are covered by the national health insurance. Most of the young ones living with diabetes cannot afford to buy these and rely on either monthly or 2 monthly checks of fasting blood sugar when they come to the hospitals for review.
Education about diabetes is minimal especially when it comes to managing children and adolescents living with the condition. With limited number of paediatric endocrinologists in the country, most young ones when referred to the tertiary centers refuse to report due to the high Doctor to patient ratio. Most of them resort to herbal treatment or prayer camps and these results in dire consequences/complication.
The journey so far…
The main aim of the Support Network Diabetes Youth Care
- To serve as a support group for young people living with Diabetes Mellitus
- Educate young people living with diabetes about nutrition, eye care, foot care, etc.
- To share information about trends in the disease management
- To teach newly diagnosed young people with Diabetes Mellitus how to deal with various problems they may encounter
- A platform for sharing stories about living with diabetes to the general public
- Solicit for various supports in relation to Diabetes care and management
The team comprises of both medical and non medical volunteers who help with monthly support group meetings held currently in 3 regions (Western-Takoradi, Central-Cape-Coast and Greater Accra-Accra).
There is also an online support network for both parents and wards living with Diabetes to answer questions and concerns.
There have been 2 donations of insulin for the young ones under the age of 23 living with Diabetes, and free glucometers and strips (2013/14) from the International Diabetes Federation (IDF)
In order to educate parents, wards and teachers, 3 brochures have been created and distributed to help in educating the general public and guardians about managing diabetes especially the acute emergencies of diabetes. This has empowered both the young ones and the guardians.
Using social media, the support network has also been able to educate the general public about diabetes especially in young ones and shared stories encouraging other young ones living with chronic diseases to reach their fullest potential.
Financing of the support network is mostly through donations by friends and family. Major events like the World Diabetes Day in November are sometimes supported by corporate bodies.
A lot is required in the management of diabetes in the young and it is the prayer of the support network to have holistic care for every young person living with diabetes in Ghana.
We hope that all persons living with diabetes will have the multi-disciplinary management comprising of
Endocrinologist
Internist
General Physician
Psychologist
Nurse
Dietician/Nutritionist
Podiatrist
Peer Support network
And most importantly access to insulin and other implements required in the management of diabetes, i.e. glucometers, strips; syringes and affordable laboratory monitor like the HbAIC (glycated haemoglobulin).
Future is bright for the young ones in the support network. Diabetes Youth Care hopes to be in every region in the future and would be there to support every young one who is diagnosed with diabetes and support the families also as they go through difficulties which they may encounter.
Diabetes Youth Care has given a lot of hope and chance of survival to young ones living with diabetes and this is seen in the stories told by the members after they join the group. The peer support has be great in creating friends who share and encourage each other daily and mentors for the younger ones living with diabetes.
The current motto is #DIABETESWONTSTOPUS
You can support Diabetes Youth Care by visiting our website www.diabetesyouthcare.org (donate your time or money)
Invite a young person living with diabetes through our contact on social media www.facebook.com/diabetesyouthcare
or on 0503979411 (voice or Whatsapp)
Dr. Nana Ama Barnes
Effia Nkwanta hospital
MOTIVATING FOR IMPROVED PRODUCTIVITY
In difficult times we need leaders who can reconceptualise leadership and refocus their subordinates. The time has come for leaders to motivate their staff to increase productivity in spite of the many discontinuities and changing realities. This is a season in which excuses are more than innovations. Indebtedness of National Health Insurance Authority to health facilities has adversely affected financing of our daily operations. Clients are battling with staff attitudes and low morale among staff is generating apathy at the workplace.