Friday, 17th June, 2022

Page 8
Health
DAILY ANALYST Friday, 17th June, 2022
The Ministry of Health
(MOH) and Ghana
Health Service
(GHS) are working
to improve access to
medicines and medical supplies
as an essential requirement for
the health and prosperity of
Ghanaians.
In view of this, they are
receiving technical support
from the Global Health Supply
Chain-Procurement and Supply
Management (GHSC-PSM) Programme,
to implement interventions
to strengthen the supply
management of health commodities
within the health sector,
to ensure interrupted access
to high quality and affordable
health commodities at the last
mile.
Under the partnership, a new
Health Commodity Supply Chain
Master Plan (SCMP) spanning
between 2021 and 2025 has been
developed to provide strategic
direction and guidance for the
implementation of supply chain
interventions over the next five
years.
Mr Kwaku Agyeman-Manu,
the Minister of Health, in Accra,
launched the Master Plan and
re-inaugurated the Procurement
and Supply Committee Technical
Working Group (PSC-TWG)
whose work was interrupted by
the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.
He said the Ministry was
working to improve capacity of
the Supply Chain (SC) to forecast,
procure, and deliver essential
medicines, and this ought to be
driven by strategic leadership
and collaboration to achieve
Ghana’s vision regarding the
Sustainable Development Goals
(SDG) and the Universal Health
Coverage (UHC).
He explained that the previous
SCMP 2015 to 2020, systematically
identified challenges in
Ghana’s public health SC, outlined
objectives for the future,
MoH Launches Health Commodity
Supply Chain Master Plan
and proposed interventions.
He however mentioned some
major achievements worth
recognizing over its implementation
as the progress in the
development of national policies,
guidelines, and Standard
Operating Procedures (SOPs);
scheduled deliveries to service
delivery point (SDP) – the last
mile delivery (LMD); as well as
in the design and rollout of the
Ghana Integrated Logistics Management
Information System
(GhiLMIS).
Mr Agyeman-Manu said in
strategic alliance with health
partners, notably the Global
Fund and USAID, the MOH and
its agencies also implemented
SC reforms that witnessed a successful
adoption of framework
contracting mechanism for procurement
of critical, lifesaving
and high-value health commodities
at competitive prices.
He mentioned other achievements
as the development of a
warehousing policy based on
network optimization, deployment
of aerial unmanned
vehicles (drones), to augment
the last mile distribution efforts
especially to hard-to-reach areas
that needed lifesaving health
commodities for emergency
care, and the institutionalisation
of SC coordination and governance
framework at all levels of
A/R: Health Directorate engages artisans
on prevention of lead poisoning
The Ashanti Regional
Health Directorate
has engaged selected
artisans, scrap dealers,
scavengers, and
automotive mechanics on the
prevention of lead poisoning
as part of a campaign to reduce
exposure to lead, especially
among children.
A total of 105 participants
drawn from seven implementing
Municipalities including Asokore
Mampong, Suame, Afigya
Kabre South, Asokwa, Atwima
Nwabiagya North and Kumasi
Metro were engaged.
The campaign dubbed,
“UNICEF/GHS Communication
for Development – Lead
Poisoning Prevention is being
funded by the United Nations
Children Fund (UNICEF).
It seeks to create public
awareness to the harmful effects
of lead to the human body,
especially children.
The sensitisation was,
therefore, aimed at drawing the
attention of the participants the
damage lead was silently causing
in their work, homes and the
environment.
This way, they can educate
their colleagues on how to
prevent lead poisoning and also
aid the work of health workers
when they visit their workplaces
and communities to talk about
lead poisoning.
Dr. Emmanuel Tinkorang,
the Regional Director of Health
Services who welcomed the
participants, reminded them of
the role they could play to reduce
the risk of exposure to lead as
industry players.
He said the nature of their
work made them vulnerable to
lead poisoning and advised them
to use protective gears to reduce
the risk.
He charged them to be
advocates for awareness creation
to complement efforts of health
workers to save lives.
Dr Michael Rockson Adjei,
the Deputy Director in Charge of
Public Health, said 240 million
were globally overexposed to lead
poisoning with a chunk being in
developing countries.
He said the greatest burden
of lead poisoning was in low
and middle income countries,
saying that such countries were
susceptible due to poor nutrition,
high proportion of children, few
regulations on lead industries
and absence of health screening
programmes.
Children living in older
houses, pregnant women and
developing foetus are mostly at
risk of lead exposure, Dr Adjei
indicated.
According to him, pregnant
women could pass lead to
their unborn children which
often caused brain damage,
resulting in lowered Intelligence
Quotient (IQ), learning
disabilities, attention deficit and
hyperactivity.
The Deputy Director said
there were often no visible
symptoms of lead in the
individual and that the only way
to determine high blood lead
level was a blood test.
He said the more lead one
was exposed to over time, the
greater the person’s risk of
disease and stressed the need
for the participants to protect
themselves and the families,
especially children.
the value chain.
The health minister said
an assessment of these recent
achievements and remaining
challenges in the SCMP 2015 to
2020 clearly showed that there
remained a few interventions for
the Ministry to meet its goals.
Mr Agyeman-Manu said the
new SCMP would over a five-year
period, direct efforts towards
achieving the health-related
SDGs and UHC, and encouraged
the PSC-TWG to work hard to
sustain Ghana’s image on the
global health arena as an epitome
of hope for quality healthcare
delivery in the West African
sub-region.
He also thanked all the health
partners for their sustained
support, and called for massive
stakeholder collaboration for the
successful implementation of the
Master Plan.
Mr Leslie Vanderpuijie, the
Chief Pharmacist for Eastern
Region, gave an update on the
Supply Chain Reforms, including
the key interventions and
achievements as earlier men-
Ghanaians were advised
to consume more
mushrooms which
contains minerals that
boost the immune
system.
Mr Maganoba Charles,
the Chief Executive Officer
of Maganoba Farms who
produces mushrooms in the
Northern region indicated that
a research conducted by LISA
Muicahy International noted
that mushrooms have a lot of
minerals such as selenium,
potassium, copper, iron and
phosphorus that are not often
found in plant-derived foods.
He said mushrooms contain a
super-high concentration of two
antioxidants and glutathione
which play a vital role in the
body.
Mr Maganoba gave the advice
in an interview with Ghana
News Agency in Tamale.
He recommended that
the public should eat more
tioned by the Health Minister in
his address.
He however said Ghana was
yet to reach the target of Abuja
Declaration on Health Commodity
Supply Chain, due to the
saddled challenges, such as poor
management and accountability
at various levels affecting working
capitals of medicines, and
financial sustainability.
There was also the issue of
low quality of human resources
as in health procurement professionals,
as well as the absence
of monitoring and evaluation
on the capabilities of key supply
chain milestones.
Dr Edward Bright Agyekum,
the Director, Procurement
and Supply Chain, MOH, said
the new SCMP focused on the
four transformation pillars of
sustainability, transparency,
innovation, and collaboration,
to ensure consistent emphasis
and connection to the ultimate
national goals by addressing the
identified weaknesses in the
previous Master Plan.
Ghanaians advised to
consume mushrooms to
enhance their health
mushrooms, which also contain
potassium which helps in
boosting the memory and also
promote heart health.
He said mushrooms help
recipes taste better in place
of salt because they contain
glutamate rib nucleotides.
He mentions that
mushrooms can also replace
red meat in any dish to reduce
calories, fat, and cholesterol
from the food.
Mr Maganoba said eating
mushrooms regularly will
increase vitamin D requirement
and make bones very strong.
He stated that mushrooms
also aid the body with energy
from the food consumed and
produce red blood cells, which
carry oxygen throughout the
body.
He encouraged citizens to
eat more mushrooms to improve
immune nutrients in the body to
enhance health.