Health sector remains an essential part of shaping economic growth – Dr Bawumia

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, says the country’s health sector remains an essential part of shaping economic growth.

He said the improvement of life expectancy and keeping the nation healthy to increase workforce, drive economic growth and prosperity required a lot of healthy investments.

Dr Bawumia was speaking at an event at Nyagbo Sroe, one of the delivery centres in the Volta Region during the symbolic commissioning of the Anum and Kete Krachi Zipliine distribution centres.

He said sustained life could not be achieved if access to medical healthcare was a preserve of a few.

He said concerns for rural access to medical care do not only assure the life expectancy of the country but also reveal the discrimination and inequality of the health system in contrast to the campaigns championed by global health bodies for equal access of healthcare.

Dr Bawumia called on the citizenry not to be divided by politics when discussing the health of the people.

He said Zipliine drones had been almost everywhere flying over hills and valleys bringing healthcare closer to the people.

Dr Bawumia noted that since government struck the agreement, challenges of travelling, delay in vaccine delivery had been resolved.

He noted that Ghana had the largest medical drone delivery service in the world and the only country in the world that distributed COVID-19 vaccines by drones to vaccination centres.

Dr Bawumia commended Zipliine for their dint of hard work, added five more centres enhancing healthcare delivery.

He said a contributing factor to the country not experiencing major expiry of COVID-19 vaccines was due to the Zipliine delivering services.

Dr Bawumia commended health workers and stakeholders whose efforts had helped manage the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

He said four million routine vaccines had been delivered by Zipliine, 300 high quality jobs being created through the Zipliine as well as its full operationalisation by Ghanaians.

Madam Naa Adorkor Yawson, the General Manager of Zipline, said the Zipliine had since 2019 delivered 1.7 million medical commodities including blood, vaccines to over 2,300 health facilities across 147 districts in 13 regions.

She said many people were benefiting from the lifesaving initiative to improve upon the health of citizens.

Madam Yawson said communities marginalised by geographical and infrastructural challenges would experience instant access to medicines, cost savings, stronger emergency and disaster response, reduction in referral rates and improved health outcomes through the Zipliine technology.

The distribution centres will have more than 150 medical drones in operation and will serve 500 health facilities in the Volta, Eastern and Oti Regions with Nyagbo-Sroe being one of the delivery centres to accommodate the supply of medical products including anti snake venom, antenatal medication, child vaccines and blood products.

Source: GNA

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