Ghana has, in the recent past, recorded significant feats in the area of health;worthy of note is the successful first-ever brain surgery in the country, by doctors at Euracare Advanced Diagnostic and Heart Centre without cutting the skull.
The minimally invasive brain surgery, which was done in April 2018, is the technique by which health workers safely remove brain and skull-base tumours through smaller and more precise openings that minimise collateral damage; that is, injury or other damage inflicted on an unintended target such as blood vessels and nerves.
The country has also seen significant improvement in health infrastructure. The University of Ghana Medical Centre, the Ridge hospital, the Korle-bu Teaching hospital, the Komfo Anokye Teaching hospital etc are among the best in the sub-region.
It thus beggars believe that, politicians are always in a hurry to leave the country to Europe, the United States of America, and recently discovered Middle East for what is termed as routine medical checkup.
It may be important to ask, why our leaders will not seek for medical help in Ghana, if they are not in any situation that is a matter of life and death.
As a newspaper we are of the considered opinion that, there are some ailments that require that our leaders travel out to seek for medical care, but the penchant for them to jump into any available aircraft to go for routine medical checkup, is an upfront to the effort and sacrifice of medical professionals in this country.
The case of the vice-president, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, can be considered an exception, as a statement issued on January 20, 2018 by the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Asare-Opare, said he had to be flown out of the country following the advice of his doctors.
The nation fritters away financial resources every year, just for the ruling class to go outside for medical checkup and this unfortunately runs through the three tiers of government.
We, are calling on the government to take steps to prevent state actors from traveling outside for routine medical checkup. This is can do by equipping and having faith in not only our doctors, but the whole healthcare delivery.
