Bolgatanga, Jan. 11, GNA – Endswell Pharmacy, a private community pharmacy in the Bolgatanga Municipality has organized free medical screening exercise for four communities in Bolgatanga East District and neighboring communities near Nabdam district of the Upper East Region.
The beneficiary communities included; Kango, Zuarungu-Nyorkoko, Sakaribisi and Tangabisi.
Mr Lawrence Atongo, Proprietor of Endswell Pharmacy, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) after the exercise, said the Pharmacy derived profit from services it rendered to members of the various communities and outside the Bolgatanga Municipality.
Therefore, as part of services it rendered to members of the public, the proprietor said management of the Pharmacy decided to organize the free screening to give back to the community as its corporate social responsibility.
“We thought it wise to galvanize the small resources we have, to give back to society through this free medical screening exercise, with the health professionals to screen the community members for various health conditions,” he said.
Mr Atongo, who is also a Pharmacist, said it was the wish of management of Endswell Pharmacy to scale up the exercise to other communities across the Region, “This is just the beginning, we are hopeful that by the grace of God, we would be able to scale it up to other communities in the Region.”
He said a healthy community is a collective responsibility, and called on members of the public, especially health professionals, benevolent individuals to support his outfit with needed expertise and that in a way will complement efforts of the Ghana Health Service to improve health care delivery in the Region.
The Pharmacist said management of Endswell Pharmacy also provided free medicines as part of the screening exercise to participants found with health problems, after which they took time to educate them on simple health conditions to ensure they lived healthy lifestyles.
Mr Desmond Yaani, an Ophthalmic Nurse who led the team of health professionals, told the GNA that 100 people from the beneficiary communities turned out for the screening exercise.
He said the team assessed among other conditions, Blood Pressure (BPs), Random Blood Sugar (RBS) levels, weight, and temperatures and ran Rapid Diagnostic Tests for malaria on all the participants.
He said the team also examined the eyes, ears, noses and throats of the participants to rule out any abnormalities and conditions of the vital organs as some people do not seek medical checkup, unless they had problems with those organs.
He disclosed that some of the beneficiaries screened had some eye conditions including; mature and immature cataracts, allergic conjunctivitis, while others had ear, nose and throat conditions such as otitis media, impacted wax, acute rhinosinusitis, Respiratory Tract Infections among others, and encouraged them to seek medical attention at health facilities.
GNA.