Patient Rights Watch Ghana To Educate Public On Patient Charter & Rights
Patient Rights Watch Ghana To Educate Public On Patient Charter & Rights
A Non-Governmental Organization(NGO) christened, Patients Rights Watch Ghana, dedicated to the cause of patients has been launched at a well-attended ceremony.
It seeks to sound the alarm and call attention of policymakers including the general public to issues affecting patients by undertaking education, victim support, and policy advocacy.
On education, the NGO would embark on media campaigns:
To educate the general public on Ghana’s Patient Charter and other laws bordering on patient rights.
Embarked on educational tours to various health training institutions to train students on medico-legal issues in health practice.
Liaise with various professional associations in the healthcare space to train and build the capacity of their members on relevant medico-legal issues pertaining to their fields.
With regards to victim support, Patient Rights Watch Ghana would offer psychological and emotional rehabilitation of victims through counseling, physical rehabilitation (providing treatment) for indigent victims in limited instances, and provision of legal services to victims including legal action to demand accountability and compensation on their behalf.
When it comes to policy advocacy, the NGO would make available to policymakers the organization’s research findings and expertise on medical law and work with them to address systemic policy issues affecting patient rights
and act as a watchdog of government policies on health by exercising vigilance in identifying actual and potential violations of patient rights and calling attention to them.
Speaking at the launch of the NGO in Accra, Isaac Ofori Gyeabour, President and Founder of Patient Rights Watch Ghana, said, that despite the existence of a Patient Charter and laws supportive of patient rights in Ghana’s status books, victims of medical negligence hardly resort to the law to demand accountability or compensation from their perpetrators.
As a result, he said, the burden of their rehabilitation devolves on themselves or their already financially stressed families.
The President and Founder of Patient Rights Watch Ghana, said, the most probable reason for this irony is that most victims are either ignorant of their rights or lack the financial wherewithal to take legal action.
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Isaac Ofori Gyeabour said, “As if that is not enough, civil society in Ghana is generally dead silent on the plight of patients. Unlike John the Baptist in Mark 1:1-3, there is no voice of anyone crying in the wilderness on behalf of patients in Ghana, despite the frequent allegations of medical malpractice on our airwaves and social media.
This is the reality we are confronted with as a nation in our healthcare sector. However, instead of joining the silent majority, this cold hard reality rather ignited my passion for patients’ rights and bolstered my resolve to do something about the situation.”
Source: Adovor Nutifafa
dovor100@gmail.com
