Trained health volunteers get working tools

One hundred and eighty-three (183) community-based health volunteers from 63 communities in the Bosomtwe District have been presented with bicycles and other kits to help in the delivery of quality health care.

The items included first aid boxes, drugs, wellington boots, raincoats, flashlights and registers.

The volunteers have been trained in the early detection and treatment of malaria, diarrhoea and acute respiratory infection in children between the ages of six months and five years.

Mr Joseph Adomako, the District Director of Health Services, said the items were meant to aid the volunteers to provide home-based care for uncomplicated malaria, diarrhoea and fever in their various communities.

The volunteers will serve as the first point of call for patients before going to the hospitals and health centres.

He noted that most malaria-related complications were the result of delays and poor management of the disease before reporting to the health facilities by the patients.

Mr Adomako said there should not be any doubt that such situations could be prevented if the volunteers were supported to efficiently operate.

The home-based care is part of the strategy under the National Malaria Control Programme to roll back the disease.

It is being piloted in 39 districts and would be replicated nationwide based on the outcome.

Madam Vida Amoako, acting District Coordinating Director, advised the volunteers not to assume the roles of doctors and nurses but to limit themselves strictly to what they had been trained to do.

Source: GNA