Free medical care for prisoners take off
A nationwide exercise to give free medical care to prisoners took off at the Medium Security Prisons at Nsawam yesterday.
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Three thousand seven hundred inmates are supposed to receive free medical care and medications.
The five-day exercise at the Nsawam Prison, forms part of the national specialised medical outreach project to ensure that the vulnerable irrespective of location are given their constitutional right to good, quality health care.
The medical exercise will be extended to other prison facilities nationwide subsequently.
Five mobile van clinics with medical officials were on sight providing ear, nose, throat, dental, x-ray and ophthalmology screening services to inmates.
Equity provision of quality health care
The Minister of Health, Ms Sherry Ayittey, who initiated the exercise and led the medical team, explained that the ministry had the responsibility of ensuring equity in the provision of quality health care for all citizens no matter the circumstance.
According to her, in exceptional situations like that of prisoners and other vulnerable groups, it was the ministry’s responsibility that quality health care was provided free of charge.
Ms Ayittey also promised to refurbish the surgical theatre of the Medium Security Prison at Nsawam into an appreciable status and provide them with ambulances to improve health delivery.
“I will ensure that a resident doctor and nurses are deployed immediately”, she added.
Overcrowding at prison
The Deputy Commissioner of Prisons, (DCOP), Mr Gyedu Kwame Ackom, briefing the media during the exercise, said overcrowding at the prison posed a lot of health challenges.
According to him, the situations put pressure on the health delivery system of the prisons which was a key area of the service’s mandate.
He said the Ghana Prison Service had a medical officer who had oversight responsibility over the physical and mental health of inmates but was not resident.
Mr Ackom said majority of the inmates had also been registered on the National Health Insurance Scheme free of charge to cover their treatment at selected health facilities.
According to him, government health inspectors visited the prison regularly to ensure that good health practices were adhered to.
Early detection
The Medical Director of the Nsawam Prison, Dr Kofi Ablorh, said that frequent health screening initiatives were very crucial for the maintenance of good health of inmates.
He explained that the medical exercise would allow them detect ailment at a very early stage at which time something could be done about it.
Writers e-mail doreen.andoh@graphic .com.gh