COVID-19 fight: Supply Chain, Procurement practitioners deserve commendation - HESSCPAG
The Greater Accra Regional President of the Health Service Supply Chain Practitioners Association of Ghana (HESSCPAG), Mr Joshua Amponsah Mintah, has lauded members of the association across the country for their key role in the fight against COVID-19 in Ghana.
He said Supply Chain and Procurement practitioners played a critical role in the fight against COVID-19 by ensuring that the right health materials and services, including protective gears, were procured in the treatment of patients.
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He said whilst members of the association are often silent with their activities, their contributions to the overall healthcare delivery cannot be overlooked.
Mr Mintah said this in an interview with Graphic Online on the sidelines of the Greater Accra Regional HESSCPAG meeting on Friday, April 8, 2022.
The meeting which is held every three months enables the regional chapter members to deliberate on best practices in their work as well as to enable them to get new insights into their operations.
The meeting, held at the Greater Accra Regional Hospital and which was specifically on performance review, brought together Supply Chain and Procurement practitioners in the various health facilities across the Greater Accra region as well as health training institutions.
Role of HESSCPAG
The Greater Accra Regional HESSCPAG President said when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in the country, "people didn’t know that supply chain did very well."
For Mr Mintah, the sewing of local nosemasks were all led by the practitioners in the Supply Chain and Procurement sector.
"There were face mask people were sewing; it wasn’t just orchestrated; there were teams that were put up to manage those things,” he noted.
He explained that the reasons “hospitals did not shut up during the COVID-19 peak was because supply chain and procurement practitioners at the various hospitals were liaising, contacting suppliers to bring in products.”
Mr Mintah said all the COVID-19 protective items that the government brought in to fight the pandemic were distributed to the various health facilities by the procurement practitioners.
“We were part of the COVID-19 fight; in fact we were front liners,” he noted.
He has therefore called on the members of the association to be united in building the association so that they can have one big voice to speak on issues affecting them.
M-Nutur sutures
In a presentation, the Medical Sales Representative from the ISMC Ghana Ltd, manufactures of M-Natur Surgical Sutures, Mr Francis Mensah said the company has been able to obtain all the necessary documentations and certifications both locally and internationally to manufacture sutures and its accessories in Ghana.
He said currently, the company is manufacturing both absorbable and non-absorbable sutures.
He mentioned Polyglycolic Acid Braided & absorbable suture (PGA); poly glycolide co-lactide rapid absorbable (PGLA); Chromic catgut; Polypropylene (monofilament sutures non absorbable); Silk (braided and non-absorbable suture); nylon (absorbable sutures), and Bone wax (2.5gm) as some of the sutures types they manufacture.
"At ISMC (M Group), we are committed to revolutionising the medical industry of Ghana by producing quality medical devices," Mr Mensah noted.
For him, the primary goal of the company was to make the premium medical devices accessible to every citizen of Ghana and the West African sub-region.
He said the company has over 20 years’ experience in the industry and that it has been operating in Egypt and Sudan.
Mr Mensah said Ghana is currently the only country in West Africa that manufactures sutures locally, calling on health facilities to patronise their products since it was much cheaper and of higher quality.