PPP assures; and vows to eradicate cholera & guinea worm
In pursuance of its promise of embarking on issue-based campaign in the run-up to the 2012 general election, the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) yesterday presented to Ghanaians its policy on health.
Titled: ‘Eradicating Preventable Diseases,’ the PPP’s 13-page document aims at helping to eradicate diseases in Ghana through the implementation of effective prevention strategies.
“Our focus is on the area of prevention where education is paramount, ensure a cleaner environment free from preventable diseases like malaria, cholera and guinea worm, provide affordable and accessible health care for all in every region and ensure emergency care throughout the country to save lives,” the statement said.
The policy statement which acknowledges that health is wealth, and a healthy nation is a productive nation was presented by the party’s spokesperson on Health, Dr Theophilus Kwofie, and it underscores the importance of good health.
Despite the importance of the health of a country’s people, the PPP said the country has been suffering from ‘a form of brain drain’ largely through the deaths of Ghanaians through preventable diseases which cause according to the party, is largely poverty.
These preventable diseases, Dr. Kwofie said, include Malaria and Cholera which were used as case studies by the party to expose the harm such diseases are causing the Ghanaian economy.
“While Malaria accounts for about 32.5 per cent of all Out Patient Department (OPD) attendance and 48.8 per cent of fewer than five years admissions in the country, Cholera continues to be one of the fastest killer diseases which in the first quarter of 2012 alone, has caused17 deaths out of 826 reported cases.”
According to the party, “though, this is an improvement over last year’s figures of 3,000 cases and 24 deaths within the same period, the situation still leaves much to be desired” because numerous policies introduced since independence to solve the menace has either failed or has been abandoned in favour of others.
“A study conducted by the Ministry of Health in 2008, estimated that annual economic cost of reported malaria cases alone in Ghana was US$772.4 million where the figure is hovering around GH¢42.88 or US$32.30 per person;” this, the party said, was a great drain on the budget for Ministry of Health in 2008 of about GH¢20million a year.
It lamented over the continual entertainment of bad practices in the country such as what transpires “in a suburb of Accra called ‘Lavender Hill’ where liquid waste and raw human faeces are poured into the sea and this find its way into our water bodies for drinking and pose a huge cholera threat. In our cities, towns and villages, the biggest challenge facing us is the seeming insurmountable problem of garbage disposal, filth, and standing pools of water.”
These practices, according to the party, continue to exist and slow economic growth by reducing the capacity and efficiency of potential labour force because the country lacks an effective leadership.
And this, according to the PPP spokesperson on health, is what Singapore, United States and Ethiopia had to eradicate these diseases from their countries.
Against this backdrop, Dr Kwofie called on Ghanaians to vote the party to power to implement practical solutions that would help prevent diseases in the country.
According to him, “a PPP led government will restore the State’s responsibility for a clean and healthy environment throughout Ghana.”
According to the party, it behooves on the government to ensure the cleanliness of the country even when it awards the contract to a private company for garbage collection and other forms of cleanliness in the communities.
“The State still retains the responsibility to manage the work to determine the quality and timeliness of work performed. The state needs to enact appropriate laws, monitor performance and enforce the laws where problems are experienced.”
This is what according to Dr Kwofie, the political leadership has been unable to do and therefore called for a new leadership to reverse this trend, and bring to power a leader with an aggressive and uncompromising attitude.
“Effective leadership; a sense of urgency in addressing issues that directly impact on human survival; and adequate education on preventable diseases and how they can be prevented are essential ingredients missing so far in the Fourth Republic. These are the positive attributes the PPP will bring when our Presidential Candidate, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, becomes the President of the Republic of Ghana in January, 2013,” Dr. Kwofie said.
STORY: KWAKU NTI
