Four corporate organisations, including telecommunication giant, Telecel Group, have made donations of medical equipment and cash towards the Ghana Medical Care Trust Fund, otherwise known as MahamaCares.
Telecel Group donated equipment that would help screen people who have cervical cancer. The equipment, which included biopsy instruments, are for three diagnostic centres of the country.
In addition to the equipment donation, the group would take care of the operational expenses for those three centres for two years as well as the costs required for the disposables for the diagnostics.
Alive Industries presented a dummy cheque for GH¢500,000 as redemption of the pledge made during the launch of the fund by the President, John Dramani Mahama, while East Cantonments Pharmacy and KIM Energies donated GH¢50,000 and GH¢5000 respectively towards the fund.
MahamaCares is a landmark initiative introduced by the government to decisively confront the growing burden of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
The fund will support specialist-level treatment for a range of chronic diseases, including cancers, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, chronic kidney failure, stroke and other complications.
It will also progressively expand to cover convalescent (recovery) care, palliative (pain management) services, and home-based support.
The Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, who received the donations in Accra yesterday, thanked the four organisations for responding to President Mahama’s appeal to contribute towards the fund and assured them that their contributions would be used for the successful implementation of the fund.
Reiterating President Mahama’s appeal for corporate organisations to support the fund, he said non communicable diseases were not far from anyone pointing out that, those affected by the disease could be their workers or clients.
He said there was a direct relationship between productivity and the health of people and added that if people were not in good health, they would not be able to give off their best.
He explained that the fund was not going to only cater for people who had already reached the complication stage of the disease and so were expected to go through treatment, but it would also look at how they could detect the cases early so that they did not get to the complication level.
“So those of you out there, you can contribute anything you have to MahamaCares and we have a short code that you can contribute to. Its very simple, *255♯,” he said.
Mr Akandoh also announced the account details through which people could make donations towards the fund.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of Telecel Group, Mohammed Damush, commended President Mahama for the establishment of the fund explaining that, it would enable companies such as his to show their commitment towards improvement of the healthcare sector.
He said cervical cancer was one of the cancers that was not detected properly in Ghana with only eight per cent currently being diagnosed.
He expressed the hope that with early detection, they would be able to improve the health of women in the country and at the same time reduce the cost required for the treatment afterwards.
Foundation
On his part, the Group Chairman of Alive Industries, Alhaji Seidu Agongo, said he viewed the fund as a programme that would touch the foundation of Ghanaians, hence his decision to support it.
He said being a businessman, his business would flourish in a healthy environment where people also have the opportunity for good treatment.
“So I would like to thank the Honorable Minister for his encouragement, his determination, and his readiness to push the programme to get it to the highest,” he said.
Both the representatives for East Cantonments Pharmacy and KIM Energies said their donations were to support the successful operation of the fund.
