Ho Municipal Hospital opens herbal clinic
Management of the Ho Municipal Hospital on Tuesday formally started herbal medicine services at the facility with a promise to “expand frontiers of herbal medicine to alleviate the ails of mankind”.
Dr Kofi Gafatsi Normanyo, Medical Superintendent who spoke at a forum on herbal medicine services held at the premises of the hospital, expressed hope that the clinic “would fill the gaps which orthodox medicine ha no clues to yet”.
He said the new service gave him inkling into the situation of the fusion of orthodox and herbal or alternative medical practice in the future.
Dr Normanyo said while between 70 to 80 percent of the world’s population depended on herbal and alternative remedies that area remained largely untapped.
“It (herbal medicine) is cheaper and its primary resources are locally placed and therefore within easy reach,” he said.
Dr Normanyo said the World Health Organization (WHO) was at the forefront of the battle to give scientific meaning to herbal and alternative remedies while the African Union and its scientific organs had also risen to the task.
He said in Ghana, the Traditional and Alternative Medicine Division (TAMD) had made “fantastic strides” in the area.
Mr Peter Arhin, Director of TAMD, said herbal medicine was largely affordable and that every effort was being made to apply technology to the area to make herbal products safe and potent and practice regulated.
Miss Ernestine Amponsem and Deladem Aloka, the two Medical Herbalists in charge of the clinic, took the forum through various aspects of herbal medicine.
She said 13 of the projected 18 pilot public herbal clinics are operational
And that the good thing about herbal medicine was that it had an attachment to the belief system of the people.
Miss Amponsem said the area had a huge potential for the nation’s economic growth including job creation.
Miss Aloka said among 20 ailments treated at the clinic were malaria, stomach ulcers, asthma and dermatitis, adding that 84 herbal preparations had been approved for dispensing at the clinics.
Miss Kafui Sokpe, Medical Herbalist at the Volta Regional Hospital, said there was the need to extend coverage of health insurance to clients of the clinic to improve attendance.
Source: GNA