Kasoa: NPP Loyal Ladies Provides Health Screening For Residents

The Loyal Ladies, a wing of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), last Friday organised a free health service for over 800 women and children at Kasoa in the Central Region.

The screening, dubbed, 'Healthy Child, Happy Mothers', was organised to educate and counsel mothers on prevailing sicknesses among children, which brought both young and old mothers from far and near for the check up.

The programme, which started at 9:00 am and ended later in the day at 5:00 pm, saw over 800 residents, including women and children, checking their blood pressure and sugar levels, hepatitis status, and malaria. There was the provision of medicines among others for free, after the diagnosis.

The group also registered quiet a number of women on to the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) at a subsidised fee.

Madam Florence Nightingale Setrana, the group leader of the Kasoa division, told The Chronicle that since 2016, they have been organising such voluntary programmes which are ways they are giving back to society.

She told the media that an 89-member team of physicians and assistants, nurses, and two doctors are going to run a shift to make sure they serve whoever comes to be treated.

Dr. Irene Dedo Sackitey, who presided over the medical team, advised the women at the gathering about the need to always keep their surroundings clean, keep keen eyes on their kids, and the need to report early ill conditions to the hospital for proper diagnosis and treatment.

She expressed that “Kasoa is noted for a bad health culture”, where most parents hardly visit the hospital when they are ill. “They prefer administering drugs from the drugstores to seeking professional advice,” she lamented.

This, she admitted, was a leading cause of dilapidated health conditions, which is growing at an alarming rate due to the cash and carry nature of the NHIS lately.

She, therefore, called on the government to improve on the NHIS due to the cost involved to encourage many to seek medical treatment at the hospitals.

She also called for the intensification of public health education within our communities to inform the majority on how to prevent certain sicknesses, and the need to stay healthy.