Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Greenfields Scientific Herbal Clinic, Dr Bright Okoh, has called on the government to sanitise the herbal medicine sector by removing quack practitioners from the system.
According to him, herbal or alternative medicine has become the treatment choice for many Ghanaians, but unqualified person were giving the practice a bad name in the country.
“Ghanaians have accepted herbal medicine especially in recent times but there are quack persons who are giving the good practitioners bad names as their services do not meet acceptable standards,” he stated.
People, he said, sometimes worsen their conditions after visiting some of the fake herbal practitioners which does not help in ensuring a healthy society.
Dr Okoh was speaking on the back of the recently held 3rd West African Traditional and Alternative Medicine Awards where Greenfields emerged the Overall Best Herbal Center of the Year, as well as the Most Innovative Herbal Centre of the Year.
The event brought together giants in the herbal medicine industry in acknowledgement of their efforts in the provision of quality healthcare in the country.
“Gradually, herbal medicine is getting the needed recognition but we need to do more to ensure the right people are providing treatment to Ghanaians,” he stated.
“Government should set up a taskforce to flush out the quack ones in the system, so they do not tarnish the image of traditional medicine,” he recommended.
Scientifically, he said, treatment had improved and efforts must be made to ensure the best was delivered to patients since the primary healthcare currently was done through traditional medicine.
“Quack practitioners usually do physical observations and draw conclusions to provide treatment without performing accurate diagnosis which is very dangerous as wrong medicines could be administered,” he stressed.
Government he said should also support alternative medicine practitioners by engaging them in workshops, training and other capacity building programmes.
“Tax waivers should also be provided on some of their raw materials we import as well as financial support so we provide affordable treatment to patients,” he added.
Going forward, he said they would upgrade their systems to provide quality healthy to the average Ghanaian.
On the Coronavirus pandemic, he said the public should remain calm and observe the basic hygienic tips to be safe.
BY MICHAEL D. ABAYATEYE
