health educational institutions urged to obtain institutional accreditation

Dr Clement Opoku-Okrah, Registrar of the Allied Health Professions Council, has called private health educational institutions to obtain the requisite accreditation for their programmes as without this their students will not recognised.

He said it is also wrong for employment agencies to entertain the services of unregistered health professionals.

Speaking at the 6th Induction and swearing-in ceremony, Dr Opoku-Okrah said Allied Health Professionals have been very instrumental in preventing and controlling the spread of chronic diseases.

The event was under the theme: ‘’Prevention and Control of Chronic Diseases Through Intensive Promotion of Healthy Lifestyles and Diet’’.

Dr Opoku-Okrah said the Allied Health Professions Council (AHPC) under the Ministry of Health has over the years sworn in more than five hundred Allied Health interns.

He advised the interns to practice what they had acquired in humility and continuously seek for ways to enhance their services in their chosen profession.

Dr Matilda Asante, Head of Department of Dietetics, University of Ghana, said chronic diseases also known as lifestyle diseases are a major cause of adult mortality and mobility worldwide.

She said the four main types of chronic diseases are: cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory diseases.

Dr Asante said the ‘’ World Health Organization estimates that chronic diseases account for 34 per cent of deaths and 31 per cent of the disease burden in the country’’.

She said a report from the Ministry of Health reveals that chronic diseases kill an estimated 86,200 persons in Ghana each year with 55.5 per cent of them aged less than 70 years and 58 per cent of the affected population being males.

Dr Asante said there is the need for all stakeholders to work with government as it seeks to reduce the prevalence of diseases.

She said there is also the need for the public to reduce their intake of saturated fats, high fatty foods, salt and increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables.