Nduom for President 08 - Idea # 5

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AN NDUOM GOVERNMENT WILL ENSURE THAT EVERY CITIZEN HAS ACCESS TO BASIC PRE HOSPITAL CARE IN OUR VILLAGES AND ON OUR ROADS.

One of the biggest challenges facing Ghana today is our Healthcare system. While initiatives such as the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and the Ghana Ambulance Service (GAS) are moving the country in the right direction, the welfare of millions of Ghanaians will not improve substantially without addressing preventive and pre hospital care, including transportation, with a sense of urgency. When elected President, I will renew the focus on providing access to healthcare in the parts of the country where the need is most acute, i.e., along our roads and highways; and in the rural towns and villages. Having ambulances to transport patients to medical facilities is helpful but studies have shown, for example, that the primary factor in reducing mortality from trauma is not the speed of transportation but the administration of life-saving care prior to arrival at the hospital.

Preventive care is one of the least expensive ways to increase life expectancy and reduce the amount of resources that are needed in the Health Care industry. Most of us seek medical care only when faced with life threatening ailments and after traumatic accidents. This is not only because we don’t feel sick or do not believe in receiving regular check-ups – in many cases, the cost of visiting a Doctor or other medical professional for an annual checkup is too burdensome. As President, one of my top priorities in the healthcare arena will involve encouraging regular medical check-ups, both by educating our citizens and, more importantly, making preventive care easy and affordable through measures such as expanding the NHIS to cover annual checkups. I will also ensure that every citizen has not only the financial ability (through insurance or otherwise) to access this care, but also the physical means to access this care – without the ability to access a doctor or other trained medical professional, health insurance is meaningless. In areas where access to a professionally trained physician is not practical or cannot be arranged quickly, non-professional medical personnel with basic training to recognize and treat conditions common in the area will be made available.

Trauma has become a leading cause of death and disability in developing countries. In Ghana, our rate of deaths due to traumatic injuries caused by tragedies such as car accidents is 50% higher than that in countries such as Canada. In addition, the vast majority of these deaths (81% in a study done in Kumasi) occur before reaching the hospital. The best way to begin to address this issue is to ensure that the individuals who arrive first at the scene of an accident are properly trained in a few basic skills. Several studies have been done, some actually researched in Ghana, proving that we can save lives and minimize permanent disabilities by supplementing the formal health care sector with EMTs and volunteer first responders with training in pre hospital care. Other ways to address mortality on our roads that I will explore include removing unsafe vehicles from our roads with a sense of urgency. While those who driver commercial vehicles have the right to earn a living wage, our citizens should not be subject to unnecessary risks while traveling along our Nation’s roads.

Currently, the ratio of physicians to people in Ghana is almost 20,000 to 1 and in certain areas, it is as bad as one doctor for every 100,000 people. It is essential that Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs) and other non-professional medical personnel be trained and posted in our towns and villages around the country. If I am elected President in December, I will ensure that, by the end of my first term in office, every town and village will have at least one licensed Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) within 5-10 miles that will be on call every day of every year. A number of these EMTs will be National Service personnel, who will receive financial incentives to undergo the proper training and serve in the most remote areas. This network of medical personnel can rapidly respond to emergencies that can either be addressed outside of a hospital setting or which require some sort of care prior to transport to a proper medical facility.

Along our roads and highways, accidents that involve buses and tro-tros regularly result in 10 or more deaths. Many of the vehicles involved in these accidents are unsafe and do not belong on the highways. Replacing these vehicles over time with safe public transportation alternatives will be a priority in my administration. In the short term, however, I plan to do two things to improve safety on the roads.

Firstly, I will reward commercial vehicle drivers who become certified in basic first aid and crash scene management with an incentive such as quarterly payments of 50 Ghana cedis, disbursed into their bank accounts. An existing course, developed at KNUST in collaboration with the Ghana Red Cross and the University of Washington, will be replicated across the country. 88% of vehicle drivers in Ghana encounter accidents where injured people are still on the scene. With the proper training, they can function as a roaming army of health care first responders and lives will be saved.

Secondly, I will create a series of rapid response dispatch centers along the major roads of the country, staffed by EMTs and supervised by qualified volunteers (e.g., Medical Students for credit towards their degrees), that will be able to rush to the scene of an accident to assist in stabilizing victims and assist with arranging transportation to proper medical facilities is arranged. These dispatch centers will be linked into the 193 emergency response line. I will also ensure that the hospitals that do exist along the major roads in Ghana have the tools that they need to provide the appropriate additional care once patients have been stabilized and transported to their premises.

By creating an efficient system of pre hospital care in our communities and around our major roads, lives will undoubtedly be saved. Reinforcing the importance of utilizing this system will be done through education both in the media and in the local communities through public service advertisements, seminar, and door-to-door education campaigns. We all want a nation where we can feel safe on our roads and where everyone has access to a basic level of care. An Nduom administration will make this a priority.