The former Director –General (DG) of the Ghana Health Service Dr. Ebenezer Appiah –Denkyira has urged the management of the ultra-modern Doron Medical Centre at Afienya near Tema to consider doing wireless clinic services to help more and more patients get access to healthcare in the remote New Jerusalem area.
The Doron Medical centre is a premium healthcare facility located at New Jerusalem with the state -of the- art medical equipment and caring professionals.
Explaining what wireless clinic entails the former DG said it is the newest form of giving care to the patients and is called telemedicine.
According to him, after a patient visits the hospital his or her telephone details are taken for monitoring and other services and that of the hospital is also given to the patient.
It is the way to go in the healthcare delivery as it is being practiced outside to ensure patients stay healthy all the times.
He revealed that it can be done as Ghana has the structures in place with a very high telephone penetration on the West African sub-region.
He said it also a form of care given where the patients interacts with the care givers more thereby avoiding the situation of the patients staying at home for his or condition to get out of hand before being rushed to the hospital.
He noted that telemedicine has the capacity to make the National Health Insurance Authority’s capitation woks properly.
He said using this system, medical centres will be given their capitation and told to make sure people don’t fall and if they do their capitation will be taken away.
By so doing the centres will be following on the patients with text messages and calls checking on how well the patients are doing he added.
’Can you imagine a hospital creating a WhatApp platform and using it to get feedback from patients on daily basis once the patient is registered with the facility.
They can be told on the platform when to come for their folders among others and saving the time they have to walk all the way to the hospital in an attempt to access healthcare’’.
Mr. Appiah Denkyira made this comment at the unveiling of the medical centre over the week end in the Greater Accra Region.
He said patients can even flash the hospital indicating they are coming to the hospital and their folders will be put at hand thereby saving the time the patient from waiting long hours in a queue.
In a welcome address earlier; the Chief Executive Officer of the centre; Dr. Godwin Ahijah said the word Doron is a Greek word that means ‘gift from God’ so, the hospital is gift to people of the area.
He said the centre has the capacity to provide comprehensive, coordinated, compassionate and cost effective healthcare to the patients of the area and its environs.
He explained that he took the decision to sink the facility in the remote area because they want save lives of the people in the area who can get to a medical centre miles away.
He noted that the services the hospital will be offering include family medicine, occupational health, paediatrics, geriatrics, maternal and child healthcare and laboratory services.
Others are X-ray, ultra sound, psychotherapy, executive and private appointments in the area.
He said the hospital will provide 24-hour service from Monday to Sunday in the area.
Source:Happyghana.com