Emergency health operations centre opens in Ho

A public health emergency operations centre has been inaugurated in Ho.

It will serve as a central location to coordinate operational information and resources for the strategic management of public health emergencies by facilitating better planning, faster identification of public health and disease threats for timely response.

The $180,000 facility was set up by the government with the support of the US government and the Republic of Korea.

It brings to four the number of such centres in the country. The others are located in Sekondi in the Western Region, Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, and Tamale in the Northern Region.

Advice

The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, who inaugurated the centre last Thursday, advised managers of the facility to ensure that it was not only put to effective use, but maintained regularly.

Dr Kuma-Aboagye said globalisation, trade and travelling had led to an increase in the spread of diseases for which reason countries were required to continuously develop, strengthen and maintain their capacity to respond promptly and effectively to public health threats.

Project

The Korean Ambassador, Lim Jung-Taek, said the centre was a joint initiative by Korea and the US as part of a global health security agenda project.

“It is our hope that through this support, the regional capacity to respond to any public health emergency will be improved,” he said.

The envoy added that in the midst of global health threats it was essential to have localised commanding chains to coordinate data-driven decisions, hence the establishment of the centre.

The Country Director of Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), Moo Heon Kong, also said that “the establishment of the emergency operating centre is crucial now more than ever to respond to health emergencies”.

In a speech read on her behalf, the US Ambassador, Virginia E. Palmer, commended the Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, the GHS and other stakeholders for their vision in helping to put up the centre.

“From vaccines to oxygen equipment, long-term health infrastructure investment and coordinated health information, the US government is as committed as ever to our decades-long public health collaboration with Ghana,” she said.

Gratitude

For his part, Dr Letsa expressed gratitude to KOICA and the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention for their invaluable support to the region over the years.