Minister Applauds AHS For Phototherapy Services

Dr. Kwaku Agyeman Manu

Dr. Kwaku Agyeman Manu, the   Minister for Health, has applauded Africa Health Supplies (AHS) for bringing phototherapy services closer to health facilities in Ghana.

The minister added that the innovation of the company has led to the assembling of the firefly phototherapy equipment, the benefits of which are enormous.

It will for instance create more jobs that will improve the socio-economic standards of the company’s employees.

Dr. Agyeman Manu made the observations in a speech read on his behalf by Dr. Baffuor Awuah, Chief Programmes Officer at the Medical and Dental Unit of the Ministry of Health at the 2nd Neonatal Jaundice Virtual Conference organised by the AHS in Accra.

He expressed the need for Ghana to extend phototherapy health technology to other health facilities across the 260 districts to deliver timely services to new born babies, especially those with neonatal jaundice and other complications.

He assured AHS of the support of his ministry and its allied agencies in providing the needed market access for the firefly phototherapy products. Mr. Albert Ankrah, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AHS, said the conference sought to create more awareness and encourage the treatment of neonatal jaundice among infant babies.

He noted that his organisation had been able to assemble a substantial number of phototherapy equipment and other modern medical equipment in Ghana, which was first on the African continent.

According to Mr. Ankrah, some of the equipment had been distributed to other countries in the West African sub-region including Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Togo, Sierra Leone and Liberia among others.

“It is worth noting that we have been working with some regulatory bodies within Ghana to register and approve our equipment, notably the Food and Drugs Authority. We are also working with the Pediatric Society of Ghana and other lead organisations and associations to identify some hospitals and clinics which need our phototherapy equipment.”

The AHS CEO was positive that the work of his organisation was going to impact the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which is to reduce the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per cent life births by 2030.

Dr. Anthony NsiahAsare, the President’s Advisor on Health, on his part thanked AHS for being instrumental to support the government to extend to and expand phototherapy services in the country’s health facilities to achieve the universal health goal.

There were PowerPoint presentations by Dr. Isabella Sagoe Moses, Deputy Director – Family Health Division of the Ghana Health Service on the topic “The Status of Neonatal Jaundice and Care in Ghana in 2021”; Dr. Adaebi Appiah, the President of the Pediatric Society of Ghana, Mr. Greg Dajer;  the CEO of MTTS and Mr. Daniel Fritz patrick of Day One Health-Canada.