Jasikan launches health advocacy project

A two-year advocacy project under which people with disabilities and women within the reproductive age would increase their attendance to medical facilities in five districts has been launched at Jasikan in the Volta Region.

The project, aimed at Mobilising grassroots participation for effective implementation of the patients charter for Persons with Disabilities (PWD) and rural women in Volta Region, is being implemented by the Royal Health Organisation (ROHEO), a Jasikan-based non-governmental organisation (NGO). It is being sponsored by the USAID, UKAID, European Union and DANIDA.

The five districts of the northern sector of the region in which the project is being undertaken include: Jasikan, Krachi-East, Kadjebi, Nkwanta North and Nkwanta South .

The People's Charter (PC) is a document drawn by the donor agencies to protect the rights of patients in the Ghana Health Service (GHS). The GHS thus expects health care institutions to adopt the charter to ensure that service personnel and patients/clients and their families knew their rights and responsibilities.

Launching the project, the acting Jasikan District Co-ordinating Director, Mr Dey Kukubor, said the project would contribute to improving safe standards and practices as well as accountability in healthcare service delivery as enshrined in the PC which was introduced in 2000.

Mr Kukubor called for the intensification of education on the PC so that a lot of targeted people could take advantage of it.

He cautioned health personnel who were the most abusers of the PC to realise that patients had rights which should be upheld.

Chief Executive Officer of ROHEO, Mr Joe Soglo, expressed regret that the studies they had conducted showed that majority of the beneficiaries were not aware of the PC.

Mr Soglo said in view of this the organisation would work hard in the two years ahead to ensure that at the end of it, the health facilities would comply with standards set in the PC.

By Emmanuel Modey, Jasikan
Daily Graphic/graphic.com.gh/Ghana