Over 300 aged persons from various communities in the Akatsi North District have benefitted from a free medical health screening exercise and the treatment of various ailments at the capital, Ave-Dakpa, while those identified with more serious health conditions have been referred to the hospital.
The free health screening exercise became possible through the collaborative efforts between the Akatsi North District Assembly and a Ghanaian-based health-oriented Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), JoBerg Foundation, as many of the people who were advanced in age had no access to regular medical services.
The 14-member medical team, including six medical doctors, five General Nurses, two laboratory technicians, and one Physician Assistant, as well as 15 health volunteers, offered special services in health education.
The Leader of the team, Mr. Joseph Magnus Marteye, said common ailments identified among the beneficiaries were blood pressure, diabetes, malaria and typhoid fever, and those whose conditions were not serious were treated during the exercise, while serious ones were referred to the hospital.
Mr. Marteye stressed that the screening exercise was not only part of the Organisation’s social corporate responsibility, but also a carefully developed strategic health outreach programme to address the health needs of the people, particularly the aged, who were handicapped in accessing quality healthcare.
He assured the people that his outfit would not relent in its efforts to ensure that the health needs of the vulnerable in the rural areas were adequately taken care of, and urged the aged to adhere to healthy practices that would keep them fit and prolong their lives.
The Presiding Member of the Akatsi North District Assembly, Mr. Patrick Kwame Ahiabu, commended the NGO for the gesture of providing the aged in the area with quality healthcare, which would go a long way to allay the fear of the aged that they were being attacked by evil spirits any time they fell sick.
Some of the beneficiaries who spoke to the media said they were constantly afraid for their lives anytime they were ill, due to lack of access to medical care, and thanked the Akatsi North District Assembly and JoBerg Foundation for the support given them.
