Over 600 Adabraka residents offered free health care

Over 600 residents of Adabraka and surrounding communities in Accra have benefited from a free medical screening exercise jointly organised by the Graphic Communications Group Limited, Accra Brewery Limited and the Dental Clinic of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital.

Beneficiaries were screened for various ailments, given free medication and offered counseling. Many others were registered for the National Health Insurance Scheme or had their expired health insurance renewed for free.

In all a strong medical team of 48, comprising 40 doctors, dentists and nurses plus eight officers of the Osu-Klottey Sub-Metro Mutual Health Insurance Scheme attended to the teeming patients who expressed profound gratitude to their benefactors. Scores of staff of GCGL and ABL were also on hand to provide ancillary support.

Dr Henry Aidoo who heads GCGL’s Clinic and led the medical team said hypertension, diabetes, malaria, upper respiratory tract infection, worm infestations, dental abscess (a collection of pus that forms in your teeth or gums as a result of a bacterial infection), and gingivitis (inflammation of the gum tissue) were some of the common conditions reported during the exercise. Visit our photo gallery for photos from the exercise.

He observed that most of the patients appeared financially challenged and not likely to seek medical care at the appropriate time hence the introduction of the Health Insurance registration for them was a key intervention to get them access health services throughout the year.

“My hope is that once they get the card, they shouldn’t wait for the condition to be complicated but they would go to any health centre so that they would be treated as soon as possible,” he told Graphic Online, saying the yearly campaign was impacting positively on the people’s health as they are increasingly getting conscious of minding their health.  

The exercise, in its eighth year, was held at the St. Joseph School at Adabraka and saw people come from as far as Burma Camp, La and James Town. Majority however were residents of Adabraka and Agbogbloshie.

Dr. Matthew Owusu Boamah of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital who led the dental team said they provided general dental care for the beneficiaries, either filling in cavities or extracting bad teeth, and for those with gum diseases they had their gums cleaned and polished.

He counseled the general public to take very good care of their teeth – brushing them twice daily, visiting the dentist at least once a year if they cannot afford every six months visits – since the teeth must last one’s lifetime.  “We encourage them to see their dentists at least once every year, if not every six months for the dentist to identify the condition that they have and also advise them on what to do to maintain good oral hygiene because you can have your teeth for the rest of your life, you don’t have to lose them,” he said.

The Managing Director of GCGL, Mr. Kenneth Ashigbey said Graphic is a national pride but cannot afford to forget its roots, explaining that it was born at Adabraka where it has lived and continue to grow for the past 63 years.

“We cannot take it for granted that the people of Adabraka have been very good to Graphic so for the past eight years we’ve taken it upon ourselves as part of the celebration of Homowo by the people, to give back to the community that has been so faithful to Graphic.”

He said there were plans to expand the number of selected schools in Adabraka that are regularly supplied copies of the Junior Graphic for free to enhance teaching and learning.

Mr Ashigbey expressed gratitude to corporate neighbours, Accra Brewery Limited for joining forces with Graphic to help meet some of the health needs of the people in the community, as well as the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital for supporting a worthy cause.

The Corporate/Legal Affairs Director of ABL, Ms Adjoba Kyiamah said ABL has done business in Adabraka for the past 82 years and aware that ABL’s success depended largely on the success of its communities, it has over the years been organizing one activity after another, including health screening for the benefit of the people of Adabraka. She said ABL, which has health as one of its core social enterprises, has for the past five years joined forces with Graphic so that together they would make a stronger impact on the health of the people.

“I can testify to the fact that doing it together we’ve made it bigger and better than when we were doing it as an individual company and while we are doing this for the Adabraka community, we also have another one on 1st December for the Agbogbloshie community to commemorate World AIDS Day. Health is something that we take very seriously and we believe that a healthy nation means a healthy economy as well, and we will continue to do this.”

The Adabraka Atukpai Chief, Nii Tetteh Adjabeng I, the Adabraka Atukpai Queenmother, Naa Korkor Ajeoyi I, and the assembly member for the Adabraka Official Town Electoral Area, Madam Margaret Wellington who all attended the programme, expressed profound gratitude to the collaborating institutions for seeking the wellbeing of the people.


Story by Isaac Yeboah/ Photos by Emmanuel Asamoah Addai

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