GHANA – The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, launched a GH6.1 million (US$ 1 million) Police Emergency Medical Intervention Fund at the Police Hospital, with the goal of providing immediate financial assistance for the medical treatment of police officers who are injured in the line of duty.
According to President Akufo-Addo, “I have been assured that beneficiaries do not have to go through the usual bureaucracies and the associated delays which have, in the past, resulted, in some cases, in personnel losing their lives whilst awaiting treatment, and the deterioration of medical conditions of some others.”
The President expressed his hope that “all police officers who require medical treatment will receive the best of care, without recourse to the cost of treatment” when he presented the first three beneficiaries of the Fund, Chief Inspector Victor Anako, Inspector Theresa Ohene, and Corporal Isaac Asuman Opoku, with amounts covering the cost of medical treatment in Ghana and abroad.
President Akufo-Addo, for his part, made a modest contribution of 100,000 cedis (US$16, 239.26) to the Fund, which was met with spontaneous applause from the officers, men and women of the Police Service gathered at the venue.
Prior to the commissioning of the New Out-Patient-Department (OPD) facility at the Police Hospital, the President commended the Police administration and the Police Hospital management for constructing the new OPD, which will help decongest the existing facility, which had previously been responsible for seeing patients with emergency cases as well as regular OPD patients.
“This new OPD, which cost a modest sum of one hundred and eighty thousand cedis (US$29,230.67), will be dedicated to emergency cases only, in line with best practices.
“It will ensure a clear separation between emergency cases and routine OPD visits, thereby improving the hospital’s quality of service delivery,” he added.
The establishment of the Virtual Medical Centre, which is an end-to-end video hospital management system, is particularly exciting.
The Virtual Medical Centre, which is an end-to-end video hospital management system, will allow patients, regardless of where they are located in the country, to undertake virtual consultation with healthcare professionals at this hospital.
Police officers can now access healthcare services from the Police Hospital from anywhere in the country, at any time, with officers guaranteed a secure platform for seamless consultations with doctors.
“Beginning with virtual OPD attendance, through diagnoses, laboratory referrals, prescription of drugs, and subsequent reviews, all of these medical processes can be done without one having to travel from his or her station.”
“Indeed, if the medical situation of a patient demands a higher level of attention, the medical doctor would immediately make the necessary arrangements for the patient to be evacuated to the nearest medical facility for treatment,” the President added.
He continued, “This Virtual Medical Centre, the first of its kind in the public sector, is, indeed, worthy of emulation, and could not have come at a better time, as we continue to battle the scourge of COVID-19, which has, to a significant extent, limited person-to-person contact.”
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