Ashaiman (near Tema), July 17, GNA – Dr Wisdom Amegbletor, Chief Executive Officer of New Crystal Health Services (NCHS), has called on Ghanaians especially residents of Ashaiman to make the right lifestyle choices, to prevent contraction of non-communicable diseases.
Dr Amegbletor cautioned of health ticking time bomb as the country continue to record increasing chronic non-communicable disease cases due to people’s wrong lifestyle choices.
He gave the advice during a sod-cutting ceremony for the construction of an ultra-modern hospital facility for the New Crystal Health Service at Ashaiman.
He indicated that non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, heart diseases, cancers, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases accounted for 41 million deaths worldwide annually with the figure representing 71 per cent of all deaths globally.
He said in Ghana, non-communicable diseases kill about 90,000 people yearly and was the leading cause of premature death as it represented 43 per cent of deaths in the country.
Dr Amegbletor observed that the figure meant, about 250 deaths were recorded daily from such diseases, adding that, “experts project that this situation would get worse unless urgent interventions are put in place”.
He cautioned the public against alcohol abuse, tobacco use, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity, stressing these acts have been identified as the major causes of non-communicable diseases.
He therefore reiterated the need for everyone to make healthy lifestyle choices to help curb the increase in the disease as preventive care was cheaper than curative.
“Our collective wealth as a people depends on our health, also the future growth and prosperity of this dear country requires concerted coordinated efforts which require the cooperation of all,” he said.
According to him, as a major health stakeholder in Ashaiman, New Crystal have started deploying its community health nurses in its branded Polykiosks within the communities to engage residents on lifestyle choices, conduct screening for the chronic non-communicable diseases to enable early detection, referral and effective management of those who might need care.
He said the New Crystal Health facility was being constructed by Sawer-Nanor and Sons Company Limited (SNS), which would place them in a better position to prevent, treat those affected and to effectively manage the complications likely to arise from the disease.
Mrs Patient Mamattah, Ashaiman Municipal Health Directorate, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of the sod-cutting, revealed that hypertension which was a lifestyle disease topped the OPD cases in Ashaiman.
She said Ashaiman recorded 26,322 cases in 2020 with 9,633 already seen between January and June 2021.
She urged residents to patronize the wellness clinics being run at the various health centres to check for early detection of such non-communicable diseases.
