Thank you to our heroic doctors

“Medicines cure diseases, but only doctors can cure patients,” says Carl Jung, a psychologist and psychiatrist.

The medical profession is a special calling not many people are able to answer because they are widely recognised as the heroes of the world.

To date, many do not know how a doctor is able to touch someone’s vein, look at their eyes or feel their heartbeat, and be able to diagnose the disease one is suffering from.

Their sense of sacrifice and the need to save and preserve human lives at all times, even at their peril, still wows many. They move people off their feet and hold them spellbound when they act as though they are “God because they are in charge of every aspect of the human body.”

When the world is faced with tsunamis of diseases, doctors, especially the hardworking ones, are the last resort. With the onset of COVID-19, the love for them keeps swelling up by the day.

The hard work and dedication of the doctors since the start of the pandemic have been phenomenal and praiseworthy.
Unfortunately, when it hit our very own, the renowned Physician and former Rector of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons,

Professor Jacob Plange-Rhule and a Consultant Surgeen at the Trust Hospital, Dr Richard Kisser, they could not be saved.

Many doctors have died in very pathetic ways, moments and situations in the line of duty. These are the kind of people who need to be celebrated and given a pat on their back. No doubt World Doctors Day was instituted.

Doctors Day puts hardworking doctors in the spotlight and encourages us to be considerate of the long hours they work, their compassion and the effort they put into practising medicine.

National Doctors Day is celebrated on July 1 each year to thank doctors and physicians for their dedicated service. The first National Doctors Day was celebrated in July 1991 to offer an opportunity to express gratitude to doctors for the round-the-clock service they offer.

Though the day is observed on different dates across the world, in the United States it is observed on March 30, on August 23 in Iran and on December 3 in Cuba.

As many countries marked the National Doctors Day on July 1, The Mirror celebrates Dr Hadi Mohammed Abdullah, a specialist surgeon and physician at the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital (Neurosurgery Unit) in Accra.

We are grateful also to The Mirror Doctor who provides insightful medical advice for our cherished readers every week, and other doctors around the world for working around the clock daily to save lives.

While at that, The Mirror is particularly concerned about the bad lots in the system who have forgotten about their Hippocratic Oath and act in ways that bring the name of the profession into disrepute.

Sometimes when you hear or see how some doctors and medical professionals behave towards their patients, your mouth gets filled with stones. This is something the professional bodies must address immediately because the acts of the few are giving the entire profession a bad name.

We also call on governments in Africa especially to address the many challenges that doctors face, key among them being the lack of requisite tools and equipment to work with, which does not make them give of themselves.  

In spite of the challenges, we still say doctors are important in the human life.

We would have loved to mention the names of every medical professional even in Ghana, but space would not allow us. All we want to say is that we love you dearly for your dedicated services to humanity.

On behalf of the Graphic Communications Group Limited and Ghana’s foremost family newspaper which cares about the health of every human, we say a very big Ayekoo to our hardworking doctors in Ghana, Africa and the world at large.