The Speaker of Parliament, Prof. Mike Oquaye, has stated that the African Union must champion medical collaborations to ensure quality health service to citizens of member-countries.
According to him, collaborating at the ECOWAS and African Union level is the surest way to improve delivery of healthcare on the continent.
“We should be able to develop some of the best attitudinal approaches in our part of the world. Raising the quality of the human factor is very important, as it should be able to respond at all levels of medical practice.
“I trust that there will be a paradigm-shift in such way that at the ECOWAS level, in fact generally at the AU level, medicine will become more of a collaborative effort whereby operations can be carried out with a long-distance approach rather than always with the doctor one on one.”
Prof. Oquaye was speaking at the maiden West Africa International Health Summit opening in Accra on Wednesday.
He said herbal medicine development is an area that needs to be looked at. Plants are the “essence of what we call medicines”, he said, calling for herbal medicines to be “properly developed, labelled and classified in a way whereby dosage can be determined with reasonable ease”.
Also, he added that it would be most useful for stakeholder to consider ways and means of improving local herbal medicine, developing standards, weights and measures, in order to benefit maximally from the practical aspect of local or native medicine.
He charged participants to formulate ways of harnessing the potential of herbal medicine in meeting the needs of Africans.
Ghana’s Deputy-Ambassador to China, Dr. Charles Dwamena, said the three-day summit will in the long-run transform the country’s health sector, given the opportunities for technology transfer.
“It is an opportunity to broaden your horizon and also touch base with colleagues from other African countries, and together we will be able to move healthcare to the level that we want.”
He also disclosed that as part of the summit’s immediate outcome, the organiser through its partners will donate 500 units medical equipment to some selected hospitals, especially the gynaecology and obstetrics wards – given that maternal mortality and mobility is of concern to all.
Ten dialysis centres are also expected to be set up in some selected countries, including Ghana and the Ivory Coast.
The WAIHS is an international health gathering that creates a platform for hospital leaders, policymakers and healthcare professionals across borders to meet and share practical experiences and best practices in healthcare.
The summit also provides an opportunity for the leaders and decision-makers to interface with manufacturers of the latest healthcare technologies, products, equipment and services.
Participants from over 25 countries are expected to participate in the summit, which is running from 20-22nd February at the Accra International Conference Centre.
At the Forum on health management, medical ethics, public financing, scientific ways of healthcare, how to manage a hospital, and nursing are expected to be discussed.
