The Ghana Diabetes Association (GDA) has appealed to the government for vehicles to enable it to continue with the distribution of free drugs for the treatment of diabetic patients across the country.
According to the President of the association, Mrs Elizabeth Esi Denyoh, courtesy of the International Diabetes Federation, which supplied diabetes drugs and consumables such as insulin, strips, glucometers, lancets and syringes, needed additional vehicles to maintain the life-saving drug chain to the various hospitals and health centres.
Speaking with the Ghanaian Times in an exclusive interview in Accra yesterday, Mrs Denyoh said a total of 1,400 diabetic patients nationwide were currently on free treatment where these drugs and consumables were given to them for free on visiting any public hospital and health centre.
“Our only problem is transportation to get the medication to the patients as it was its vision is not see any child die from diabetes because they cannot afford the cost of treatment or transportation to get to the facility,” she said.
Reiterating her association’s commitment to making life comfortable for persons living with diabetes, she said, “we have to travel to remote parts of the country where sometimes the deplorable nature of the road requires a cross-country vehicle (4X4) which we do not have but we have to risk to get the medicines to the health facilities for our clients to access.”
Explaining further, Mrs Denyoh stated that in 2013, the Government of Ghana and the IDF, represented by Life for a Child Foundation, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Health where the Foundation’s responsibility was to supply the medication freely to patients who had been registered and captured in their database.
As part of the MoU, the Government through the MoH was enjoined to clear the goods from the ports on arrival, as well as keep them in the medical stores where the Foundation would in turn collect and distribute to the various destinations.
The programme has since 2013 been running, she said, adding “we wish to say diabetes treatment is free for patient up to the age of 25 years old”.
“Once you are diagnosed, you are put on free treatment without any precondition,” he added.
Mrs Denyoh, who is also the Programme Officer for Non- Communicable Diseases (NCD) of the Ghana Health Service, commended the government for the support over the years to ensure that a section of the citizenry living with diabetes had access to medical care.
She called on patients on diabetic drugs to follow the treatment guidelines to avoid fatality, saying ,“no person living with diabetes should die from the disease because there is a life-long treatment available”.
She also called on Ghanaians to restrain from living lifestyles that made them susceptible to becoming diabetic.
BY NORMAN COOPER
