Health Minister inaugurates Ghana College of Pharmacist board …charges them to promote specialist training in drug safety
The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, yesterday inaugurated the new governing board of the Ghana College of Pharmacistscharging them to promote specialists training in drug safety for improved patient care in the country.
According to the Minister, such specialty was critical as Ghana made inroads into establishing a vaccine institute and manufacturing plant amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and other infectious diseases.
“Very soon we will be producing anti-snake serums, we are also establishing a vaccine institute to enhance research development into vaccines as well as the plant, and you as scientists must tailor your training towards the new pathway we are charting so that when it comes to skills, we won’t have cause to import human resource from other countries but will be capable of handling things ourselves,” he said.
Mr Agyeman-Manu seized the opportunity to address the rising attrition in the health sector in recent times, appealing to professionals to stay in-country and support the sector to thrive.
“We hear many nurses are leaving the country though legally but we are trying hard to see how to weather the storm to retain them. Initially we had such arrangement with Barbados to post nurses there on bilateral grounds but we currently do not have any official policy to export any cadre of health professionals to other countries so we appeal to them to stay and contribute their quota to save lives,” he said.
Giving update on COVID-19 response measures, the Minister indicated that with emerging variants of SARS-COV-2, the virus which causes COVID-19, all expertise were needed to better control the pandemic.
He said the country now had enough vaccines in stock and had begun rejecting offers that were near expiry, as it continued to expand storage capacity nationwide to safely store and deploy vaccines.
“We hope to increase vaccination target to about 75 percent of the population then we can ease restrictions. But as it is now, we cannot think of easing them. We are threading cautiously and we will be advised what to do.”
Mr Agyeman-Manu urged the board to work hard at bring sanity into the noble profession to complete general health service delivery, and achieve Ghana’s target of universal health coverage.
The Chairperson of the 11-member board and Paramount Chief of the Akwamu Traditional Area OdenehoKwadwoAkoto III, on behalf of members expressed gratitude to the President for the appointment promising to give off their best to improve patient-centered care in the country.
Other members of the board are; the Rector of the College, Yvonne YirenkyiwaaEsseku, President of the College, Joseph KodjoNsiahNyoagbe, Director of Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation of the MOH, Dr Emmanuel AnkrahOdame and President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana, Mr Samuel KowDonkoh.
The rest are Reverend Professor Isaac Julius Asiedu-Gyekye, DrAuduRauf, MrsMarina AnnobeaAppiahOpare, Dr Samuel AmoabengKontoh, Dr Daniel AmaningDanquah and Dr Joseph KimosAdjei.
BY ABIGAIL ANNOH
