Government to streamline health care promotion- Amenowode

Hohoe, Feb. 28, GNA - Mr Joseph Z. Amenowode, Volta Regional Minister, has said government was poised in championing a symbiotic relationship between orthodox, traditional and faith healing towards quality healthcare service delivery.

He said this in an address read on his behalf at the fourth Volta Regional Conference of Ghana Association of Faith Healers (GAFH) and Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) at Hohoe on Friday. Mr Amenowode, Member of Parliament for Hohoe-South, bemoaned the proliferation of unlicensed prayer camps and faith healing centres, whose activities were detrimental to social norms.

He noted that such camps and centres have bred quacks and swindlers, who milk innocent members of the public of their wealth and possessions and sometimes leave such clientiles, endangered and injured, leading to deaths. Mr Amenowode was however happy that under the auspices of the Traditional Medicine Practice Council Secretariat of the Ministry of Health (MOH) sanity was being restored in the general operation of practitioners. He acknowledged the significant role played by GAFH/TBAs to the healthcare service delivery system and urged practitioners to ply their trade in a more professional, hygienic and humane manner.

Mr Kweku Owusu, General-Secretary of GAFH/TBAs said code of ethics designed by stakeholders was binding on the operations of members, urging practitioners to embrace the national registration exercise, meant to license and streamline their activities. He appealed to practitioners to be pragmatic in the discharge of their healing endeavours, which were usually shrouded in secrecy and subject to herbal products and concoctions.

Mr Emmanuel Appiah, Hohoe Divisional Police Commander said human rights violations and abuses were on the ascendancy in faith healing and traditional healthcare practice despite Constitutional guarantees for all. He urged practitioners to detest child trafficking and child thefts to barren women or for ritual purposes as the law was explicit on such crimes. Mrs Vera Gaitu, Deputy Director of Nursing Services at the Hohoe Municipal Directorate of Health, urged practitioners especially TBAs to adhere strictly to infection prevention practice regimes, which entailed appropriate hand-washing, quality safe services, protective clothing, injuries prevention, waste disposal and general house-keeping mechanisms. She called for complementary roles between midwives and TBAs, stressing that faith should not be a barrier to healthcare service delivery. Rev Gershon K. Osei, Volta Regional Secretary of GAFH/TBAs appealed to practitioners to subject themselves to training and capacity building regimes, to better their divine gifts from God. He appealed to municipal and district assemblies to support the umbrella Association for guaranteed quality assurance control mechanisms.