Adhere to core values of the medical profession – Dr. Amofa

Accra, April 9, Ghanadot/GNA - The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) Focus Magazine was on Wednesday launched with a call on medical practitioners to strictly adhere to the core values of the profession to help improve health care delivery.

Dr. George Amofa, Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), who launched the magazine, mentioned the six core values as people sensitivity, professionalism, teamwork, discipline, innovation and integrity.

The 36-page quarterly magazine touches on real issues that affect the health of people such as ethics, practice, faith and health, finance and investment. It also dedicates a page for students, which is aimed at fostering good relationship between GMA and the medical students.

Dr. Amofa advised that all articles should be based on scientific evidence so that when they are challenged, empirical evidence could be provided. He also urged them to work as a team for the sustainability of the magazine.

Professor Agyeman Badu Akosa, former Director-General of GHS who chaired the function, said the magazine was a platform for all who wanted an in-depth knowledge of the profession and its related issues.

He stressed the need for medical practitioners to write and educate the public and not only to stick to the consulting room and drug prescriptions.

Prof. Akosa urged them to advocate for safer roads, good drinking water and good hygiene, among other things, saying when these were put in place the disease burden of the country would be minimised.

The President of the Ghana Journalists Association, Mr Ransford Tetteh, commended the GMA and noted that writing was not easy and if the magazine was sustained it could be a major reference point for the media.

He said it was unfortunate that 51 years after independence people still lived in unsanitary conditions increasing the disease burden. However, he said, people were becoming conscious of healthy lifestyles.

Dr. Sodzi Sodzi-Tetteh, General Secretary of the GMA and Editor, said the Focus Magazine was driven by three passions - public health education, advocacy and the need to appreciate the unrecognized work of the medical practice. The magazine would also provide a platform for holding creative conservation.

He said it was the expectation of the GMA leadership to connect and reconnect better with each other and with the ever-present world beyond the hospital.

GNA