- inaugurates projects at Police Hospital
President Nana Akufo-Addo on Tuesday launched a GH¢6.1million Police Emergency Medical Intervention Fund, aimed at 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 associated delays which have in the past resulted, in some cases, in personnel losing their lives while awaiting treatment, and a deterioration of medical condition for others”.
Presenting the first three (3) 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, the president was hopeful that “all police officers who require medical treatment will receive the best of care, regardless of the treatment’s cost”.
On his part, President Akufo-Addo made a modest contribution of GH¢100,000 to the Fund; a gesture that was met with spontaneous applause from the officers, men and women of the Police Service gathered at the venue.
In his remarks prior to commissioning of the new Out-Patient Department (OPD) facility at the Police Hospital, the president commended the Police administration and management of the Police Hospital for constructing the new OPD, which will help decongest the existing facility that hitherto was responsible for seeing to 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 (GH¢180,000), will be dedicated to emergency cases only, in line with best practices. It will ensure a clear line of separation between emergency cases and routine OPD visits, thereby improving the quality of service delivery at the hospital,” he added.
The president was particularly enthused by the establishment of the Virtual Medical Centre, which is an end-to-end video hospital management system – constructed at an equally modest GH¢50,000 – that will allow patients, no matter where they are located in the country, to undertake virtual consultations with healthcare professionals at this hospital.
Police personnel, irrespective of their location, can now access healthcare services from the Police Hospital anywhere in the country at any time, with officers guaranteed a protected platform for seamless consultations with the doctor.
“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 will 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”.
