By Jerry Azanduna
Techiman, (Bono East) Oct. 28, GNA-Dr Samuel Kaba Akoriyiah, the Director-General (D-G) of the Ghana Health Service, has called on Physician Assistants (PAs) to do more to save lives at the community levels.
He noted that the lives of the community members were in the hands of the PAs because of the essential health services they provided, saying that the PAs remained ultimate agents in providing emergencies for both preventive and curative diseases.
Dr Akoriyiah made the call when he addressed the opening session of the 23rd Annual General Conference of the Ghana Physician’s Assistant Association (GPAA) in Techiman in the Bono East Region.
The four-day conference is on the theme: “From policy to practice: Positioning the Physician Assistant to deliver comprehensive Free Primary Healthcare at the Community Level” and will elect new national executives of the association.
He indicated that as licensed healthcare professionals, the work of the PAs remained integral in advancing health outcomes in the country.
Dr Akoriyiah said the PAs examined, diagnosed and prescribed medications to clients for their treatment process, and urged them to be guided by the guidelines of the GHS in the discharge of their duties of providing quality healthcare delivery services.
The D-G recollected the history of his birth, saying: “I was treated by PA in the Chiana community health center in the Kassena-Nankana West District of the Upper East Region.
“In fact, if not by the intervention of the PA at that time, the country would have lost a D-G,” urging the need to motivate the PAs to work hard and to save precious lives.
Dr Akoriyiah said more than 1,820 PAs were presently providing health services in deprived communities in the country, saying that the GHS was putting in place measures to improve their welfare.
He explained that the implementation of the Free Primary Healthcare Programme (FPHC) programme would address the emerging health needs of Ghanaians, especially those in rural areas.
Dr Akoriyiah called on everybody to support the FPHC execution for the nation to derive the optimum benefit.
Mr Peter Akurugu Ayamba, the President of GPAA, explained that PAs played an integral role in the smooth and successful implementation of the FPHC.
He indicated that the existing gaps between policy and practice in the GHS’s health system was not primarily a gap in funding, though funding matters but a gap in system alignment.
Mr Ayamba said: “If we are serious about moving from policy to practice, then we must be serious about removing the regulatory obstacles that stand between policy intent and community outcomes.”
He stressed the need to empower the PAs to respond to the full range of health needs in the local communities they served.
GNA
Edited by Dennis Peprah/Benjamin Mensah
Reporter: Jerry Azanduna