A dentist attending to a beneficiary of the health outreach
The Empowerment Worship Centre (EWC), a charismatic community church, over the weekend organised a medical and educational outreach for residents of Achimota and its environs.
The outreach dubbed ‘LifeCheck’ offered a wide range of medical services like general OPD service, general consultation, laboratory tests, electrocardiogram (ECG) test, ultra scan, eye screening, dental service, family planning and counselling to beneficiaries.
Over 1,500 residents were enrolled onto the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), whilst others donated blood to support the National Blood Bank.
The church also donated school bags and stationery to the ‘Back To School’ section of the ‘LifeCheck’ project, as well as clothing, food and drinks to the residents and participants of the project.
The coordinator for the project, Dr Paul Lartey, stated that the church deemed it fit to extend a helping hand to the society as they preach the gospel, adding that it would be inadequate on the part of the church to go about preaching about the love of Christ without assisting people with their needs.
“LifeCheck since its inception in 2014 has assisted in improving lives of people in some selected societies and this year we hope to screen about 7,000 people in this health screening and enroll those who are not on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS),” he disclosed.
“We do not want them to stay home after this screening. We want them to visit the hospitals for further healthcare, should they be diagnosed of any disease,” Dr Lartey said.
He added that most of the people do not have money to register and sometimes renew their NHIS cards, expressing his hope that the exercise would go a long way to change their lives.
Dr Lartey urged Ghanaians to cultivate the habit of visiting the hospital at least once a year, reiterating that hospitals are not meant for the sick only.
“Some diseases do not show any symptoms until they have reached their highest levels and so Ghanaians to take advantage of such free health screening exercises to check their blood pressure, hepatitis status and other diseases which may be hidden in their bodies,” he added.
By Abigail Owiredu-Boateng