By Kwabia Owusu-Mensah
Kumasi, June 21, GNA – The Most Reverend Paul Kwabena Boafo, Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church Ghana, has urged health professionals in the church to always exhibit Christ-like attitude in serving the people under their care.
He said healthcare was a vital aspect of human society and they should see themselves as mature Methodist health professionals, who were confirming their Christian faith of service to humanity, irrespective of the background of the people who came to them or wherever they found themselves working.
Most Rev. Boafo, who was addressing the 7th conference of the Methodist Health Professionals in Kumasi, said for the Methodist people, healthcare was not an appendix of the church, but an essential service started from the early days of the church for humanity.
The conference was on the theme: “Mature Methodist Health Professional: His or Her Role Towards the Universal Health Coverage and Building Resilient Health Systems to Confront Non-communicable Diseases and Mental Health.”
Most Rev. Boafo pointed out that the profession they had chosen, was to serve and give healing to people without any discrimination, adding that God had called them for a purpose and irrespective of where they were, they should see themselves as serving the present generation.
You need to do things differently to impact humanity, he added.
He said the goal of universal health coverage was to ensure that everyone received quality healthcare without any barriers, be it financial, access, racial background etc.
As Methodist health professionals, the Christ factor should be seen in them and bring it to bear in the discharge of their duties.
Most Rev. Boafo said they had a big responsibility to serve the people and advised them to intensify health education in their communities to empower the people on the need to be conscious of their health to reduce hospital attendance and the workload in their health facilities.
Mr Edward Osafo, Director of Methodist Health Services, said the purpose of the meeting was to bring the professionals of the church together and build their Christian faith, by focusing on assisting them vocationally and intentionally align themselves with God’s character and eternal purpose.
It was also to build the capacities of the health professionals to engage, influence and transform their context and the whole of healthcare structure.
Mr Osafo said the Methodist Health Services had been undertaking a number of activities to reach out and attract people.
Among them were health education, medical screening and outreach programmes, blood donation as well as the establishment of health facilities, which were providing care to many people in the communities.
The church has 26 health facilities in nine regions of the country and two health training institutions at Afosu in the Eastern region and Ankaase in the Ashanti region.
GNA